The Dragon Hunter
by Don Socrates
Summary: First Kronos, then Gaea, and finally Pandora's Box. Percy had saved everyone three times but finally he'd disappeared and gone off the grid completely after the emergence of a new race of Dragons. What was going to happen when he finally returned in the middle of a rainy night and revealed the truth about his disappearance to the Goddess of the Hunt?
1. Chapter 1 - The Scent Of Cinnamon

**Chapter 1 – The Scent Of Cinnamon**

Thalia Grace wasn't like other girls her age and even that was a hollow statement to make because Thalia Grace could never again age, never physically changing past fifteen years old. She was a Hunter dedicated to serving the Greek Goddess Artemis who was also her Godly sister.

Having lived in a camp centrally tied to the Gods and their children, Thalia had once found herself struggling to understand that her family tree was no simple matter, she had cousins and nephews, nieces and all sorts of people that all stemmed around the Gods of Olympus.

Thalia was the Demi-God daughter of Zeus, the king of Olympus who often ruled with an iron fist tightly clasped around a bolt of lightning that was always ready to be unleashed upon anyone unfortunate enough to get in his way.

Being a half immortal Hunter, Thalia found that her 'hunts' that she embarked on alongside her serving sisters were always varied, sometimes she'd hunted down monsters that populated the world and on very rare occasions she'd be hunting down a person, Hades, just a few years ago Artemis herself had been tasked with hunting down a Demi-God that had gone missing, none other than her own cousin, Percy Jackson, the son of Olympus.

It wasn't a surprise when she'd found out that they were the ones in charge of finding him, he was the saviour of Olympus after all. He'd stopped Kronos in Manhattan years ago and even stemmed the advance of Typhon after that. It hadn't even passed by a year before he was thrown back into another conflict, a war that had been waged on the Roman Demi-Gods by Gaea who had sought to revive the Gigantes and destroy Olympus, he was the one who had stopped Gaea in her tracks on that fateful day.

Percy Jackson was an extremely powerful Demi-God, a brilliant asset for Olympus, so what else could the Gods do when Percy Jackson had been declared missing?

Three years had passed since his disappearance after the third great threat to Olympus, yet another threat that Percy himself had been directly responsible for stopping: Pandora's Box. It had been opened and before Percy had closed it to seal the malevolent spirits and beings back inside, he'd been too late to stop a certain type from escaping the confines of Pandora's Box.

Ten ancient Dragons had been released and they in turn had birthed a new race of Dragons who had repopulated all over the Earth, none of them perceptible by mortal eyes due to the heavy lingering mist that constantly followed them around like a cloud of pestilence.

Thalia's thoughts about her cousin's disappearance had come out of nowhere, it had been officially ruled out after three years of searching that Artemis and her Hunters simply could not find the boy who had grown into a man in the time gone by. He would have just turned twenty one in the past couple of months.

Thalia looked around her surroundings with a slight sigh escaping her lips. The forest was damn and there were no sounds to be made out above the constant raindrops hitting the canopy that she was hiding in. Artemis had ordered her and the rest of the elite Hunters to follow the trail of something big, something that the mortals couldn't see yet they were clearly able to see the trail that it was leaving in it's wake.

Perhaps that was why Thalia had been suffering thoughts about her missing cousin? If the Hunt was tracking a Dragon then the first thing she'd be thinking about was where the legendary son of Poseidon had gone in their time of need though she wasn't sure about how much he'd be able to help her in a fight against a Dragon. He was strong but Dragons were famed for their sheer destructive capabilities.

A vibration worked its way through the tree she was squatting along the branches of. She had sensed it worming through the wood before the vibration had even reached her feet. Something far below her was moving through her area and it had to be big if it was sending this level of tremors through a tree as grand as the one she was in especially since she couldn't even see the culprit.

A silver flash appeared out of nowhere in the corner of Thalia's eyes, that was the first signal that a God or Goddess had teleported somewhere, a very vibrant ray of light that was created from thin air, the second signal was something that only Hunters and those of a similar discipline could perceive; the smell.

Artemis was constantly masked by a very faint scent of the forest but more dominantly she always seemed to carry the sweet aroma of cinnamon whenever she appeared somewhere.

"Thalia we're retreating, the beast stalking through the woods knows you and the other Hunters are here, you've become the intended prey to a beast of old." Artemis' words and her tone were very low and even hushed, she did not want to alert the monster to their location any more than it had already figured.

Thalia's eyes widened ever so slightly, they'd never given up on a hunt before and there hadn't even been any occasions that Artemis had willingly told them that the hunt had been reversed so just what in Hades was stalking along the wet forest floor?

"There's a Dragon tracking your scent, we need to leave, you cannot hope to kill a Dragon Thalia, not with the numbers that we have." Artemis told her sternly, her silver eyes were engaging and powerful, they seemed to promise that no matter how Thalia looked at the situation that Artemis would always be right, with their numbers they couldn't take down a Dragon even with Artemis fighting alongside them.

Artemis stopped with hesitations as her focus was placed elsewhere. At first she seemed to be gazing off into the distance below them but when Thalia took a minute to actually follow her Lady's line of sight she saw something that made a drop of sweat roll down her face. A sweat born of fear had taken it's place on her face when she saw a cloaked man walking across the undergrowth of the forest stopping ever few seconds to listen to the vibrations of the Dragon moving past all of the trees.

"That's no mortal, it can't be..." Artemis whispered to herself. She was determined to see how this all played out because the man on the forest floor was doing something that she wouldn't even had expected her best Hunters to do. He was reading the air, feeling the vibrations riding on the wind, matching them to the now faint tremors that spread across the ground.

"He's hunting this Dragon." She spoke a little bit louder, unsure of herself at first with how she should even approach this situation. "Thalia, evacuate yourself and the Hunters, make for the next campsite destination and I'll meet you there, I've got to find out who that is." Artemis never waited for an answer from the daughter of Zeus as she'd already moved onto an adjacent tree in absolute silence, the Hunter in her mind had appeared on the surface and she was in full concentration as she became one with the forest perfectly mirroring the actions of the man below her, feeling the air to find out where that Dragon had moved to.

She watched like a bird of prey, never taking her eyes off of the man who had so far not made a single mistake. He'd found a perfect cover in the darkness of night and he'd remained deathly silent while he waited for the Dragon to cross it's own tracks and return from it's search for food.

Artemis had finally found herself within earshot of the man and patiently waited to see what else he would do. He quietly sniffed at the air before muttering to himself, "Not an Ancient Dragon, just a whelp this time." He sighed. His voice seemed distantly familiar but at the same time she was sure that she'd never heard this man before, his tone was deep and help disappointment. He knew what an Ancient Dragon was and yet he was willingly hunting down one of the most dangerous creatures to ever exist, coupled with the fact that he had been able to distinguish two different species of Dragon apart just by the faint scent left behind made Artemis even more determined to find out who, or _what_ he was.

"Hmm, unusual. Dragon, Human... No, not Human but... Demi-God? What are Demi-Gods doing in this fo-..." As if he'd been struck down by an unseen force he'd stopped talking instantly but Artemis couldn't sense why, the Dragon hadn't made any sudden movements, she could feel it half a mile from where they were at the edge of a large lake.

"It's drinking, peculiar." The man slowly got off of his knees and started to slowly and stealthily make his way towards the lake's basin at the bottom of the hill. "This whelp might still be in the nursing stage, must stay vigilant as a parent could be around. Possibly High Dragon perhaps? No, there would be a heavier pressure following this baby Dragon if it's parents were that powerful." He continued to list off the possibilities of what this Dragon could be and all the while he was doing that he was proving to Artemis that he was incredibly versed in the knowledge surrounding Dragons, she hadn't known anyone to be so perceptive of the Dragons, no one had ever even been anywhere near this level.

"More Demi-Gods... All darting around like flies to a lamp, most of them employing an impressive level of stealth, that must mean that... That scent, where have I picked that up before?" He asked himself before standing up straight and gazing at the few stray beams of moon light that had struggled to breach the canopy above.

"Cinnamon, scent of the forest... Only one person has ever smelled so sweet yet been so deadly." He whispered. Was he referring to her? She wasn't quite sure how she felt after hearing herself being referred to like that, was it a compliment or an insult.

"In a forest under the moon, hunting a Dragon and continuing to smell... _That_ scent _."_ His expression was one of lost focus like he couldn't sense the Dragon if he inhaled the aroma of cinnamon. "She knows I'm here, she must do, _so..._ " The man paused before stepping directly into one of the only spots that clustered light from the vibrant silver moon above.

"Better put on a show for the beautiful Goddess, right; Lady Artemis?" His voice got louder when he'd directly called out to her but it was still hushed enough so that the Dragon wouldn't hear and pre-emptively come to investigate the new arrival to it's hunting grounds.

She knew he was there from the start but by process of elimination from the things he could sense and the things he knew, he had figured out that she was there as well, he was actually incredible at hunting, that much she already knew, so she decided that she'd at least give him a certain level of respect and show herself without aiming an arrow at his face, that wasn't going to stop her from having a concealed grip on a few throwing knives though.

Silently dropping from her perch, she stepped out from behind a tree that had blocked her from his sight. His head followed her body as she walked into a better area of light. "Who are you?" She began, "I can't let you leave without you telling me who you are. Everything you just did, tracking this Dragon from air wave vibrations then figuring out that I was nearby just by smelling the scent of cinnamon in the air, that is... It's frankly incredible." She admitted while she slowly strolled in a large circle around him, like a wolf circling an injured deer.

As she continued, she managed to finally get a real look at the man, he was covered from head to toe in black hunting gear, half of it looking leather and the other half looking like it was made from a material that could only be described as solid shadows. There was a thin longsword scabbard attached to his back, that already set him apart from most people as no one ever kept a scabbard of a sword that length attached to their backs.

"I'll take that as a compliment, the fact that I've managed to impress the Goddess of the Hunt, but I guess my game of solitude is probably coming to it's closure so I'll have to start praying to you again." He announced with a slight chuckle. His voice was easygoing and relaxed which she expected perfectly mirrored his hidden face.

She gasped slightly, start praying to her again? Surely that could only mean that he was... As if the man in front of her could read the Goddesses' mind, he turned to face her before pulling his hood and scarf away from his face to reveal vibrant emerald eyes that held the piercing power of a thousand sharpened swords. His thick raven hair only further confirmed what she now knew was true.

After three years, she had only found him because he had revealed himself to her but he was... Different. Something inside him was no longer the same, he held that crucial piece of immortal DNA that all Demi-Gods did but he didn't feel like a Demi-God.

"Percy? My Gods but... But... H-how is it that you can do all of this? How did you manage to hone your senses to MY level in the space of three years!?" Her voice was still a whisper and her words were hardly stringing together but he understood what she was trying to ask him. He continued to smile, a worn out and tired smile that no doubt acted as a facade over a lifetime's worth of pain and suffering that the son of Poseidon had taken upon himself as a lone burden after saving Olympus, and the world respectively, three times in his early life.

"I'll explain but I've got to sum things up because I came here to kill that Dragon and it's prone to moving erratically because it's still young." He told her quietly. Artemis nodded, allowing him to be somewhat short with her but after all this time she hardly had any ground whatsoever to be unhappy with at least some answers as to him being this capable with hunting.

"When I closed Pandora's Box with my own hands the blasted thing unleashed a self defence mechanism of the highest level of malevolence. It ensured that if I was to correct the mistake made by letting the Box be unleashed in the first place that it was to be my own kin I'd be slaying." His words hadn't exactly made that much sense to her but she understood the part about the Box doing something in self defence because of Percy closing it once again.

"Which means?" She was by no means a slow or stupid Goddess but Percy wasn't making things easy for her with his more than cryptic explanation.

"Artemis, the Box ensured that I had become one and the same with the released evil. The Dragons were the only thing that escaped so for me to be hunting them all down to correct my own mistake, Pandora's Box made me..." He waited to see if Artemis had finally understood what he was trying to tell her and judging by the way that her face had dropped in shock horror, she had definitely gotten it.

"That you're-" She pointed at him, her face turned even whiter than before.

"Yes. I'm a Dragon." Percy told her with a neutral expression, unsure of how Artemis would see him after finding out that he too had been transformed into a Dragon. It made sense to her, he could feel the vibrations in the floor and air because of his ultra sensitivity in his skin, he had smelled the Dragon and Artemis' own scent because of his unbelievable sense of smell and to top it all off, his analytical mind hadn't been something he'd had three years ago and it was well known that Dragons were gifted with a fierce intelligence.

Percy Jackson had returned after three years as an entirely different man, "I'm a Dragon but that's not it. I told you that I was correcting a mistake and through these past few years I have become the only person capable of doing it; Artemis... I'm a Dragon Slayer."

 **A/N: Review?  
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	2. Chapter 2 - A Fight Between Dragons

**Chapter 2 – A Fight Between Dragons**

Artemis was willing to overlook the fact that Percy had dropped her honorific and simply called her Artemis, he was the three times saviour of Olympus, she could afford to give him some leeway but what she really wanted to do was to sit him down and find out everything that had happened to him in the past three years since Pandora's Box.

OK, so Pandora's Box was a nasty piece of work that had cursed him, or done something similar, in such a way that he had been transformed into a Dragon, one with the outside appearance of a Human being but with the inside works of a fierce and unstoppable determination of the winged beasts of old.

So he was a Dragon... Artemis could believe that. She knew of the sheer malevolence that Pandora's Box held and it wasn't outside the boundaries of logic that it would put such a predicament upon Percy but why had he disappeared without a trace after all that? There had to be a reason that he had fled from the eyes of everyone and gone into solitude. Was it possibly connected to the fact that he was hunting down the Dragons indiscriminately?

Percy had said that it was his mistake that the Dragons had been released, that's what he'd called it, 'correcting his mistake'. So the son of Poseidon had taken it upon himself to slay every Dragon that did not belong in their world, she had no idea how she would report all of this back to Olympus. Perhaps she'd ask Percy to come with her and explain it all himself though he didn't exactly strike her as the type of man that would let his focus slide, he seemed so determined to constantly run down the Dragons that she doubted he'd take any time off even if it was to go to Olympus. Artemis could only grasp at theories over what Percy believed that they would all think of him being the same kind as those he was hunting.

The rain had gotten heavier, falling down in large drops that shot past Artemis' vision. Despite the cloak of water that seemed to be surrounding them, she could see it very clearly, she could see that despite three years surrounding the disappearance of the man in front of her, that even after turning into something that he should never have had forced upon him, that at his core he hadn't changed entirely. The rain instinctively darted around his body, never once managing to land on his hair or clothes, such was a passive power belonging to the kin of Poseidon.

Artemis couldn't help but just stare at him for a moment. She wanted to grill him for information yet at the same time she just wanted to let him sleep and rest all of the built up fatigue that was so obvious just from the way his eyes were dulled and tired. He was full of energy in that single moment but the things he'd done in the past three years had clearly taken a toll on him, he was still only a Demi-God but here he was having not abandoned Olympus after it's third threat but directly dealing with the fourth threat while it was still within its early stages. Only he could defeat the Dragons and that was the task that he alone carried on his shoulders. Artemis couldn't even fathom the burden he was holding and it was made that much heavier by the fact that he believed the release of the Dragons to be his own mistake that his hands were the ones to free them. If only he knew that nobody had blamed him for anything.

Artemis had finally found herself and was about to ask him to come back with her, to see the people he'd left behind on that day three years ago but Percy's head shot towards the slope of the hill that led to the basin of the lake where they believed the Dragon to be. Artemis hadn't heard a thing and she certainly hadn't felt any different vibrations in the air but with the rain increasing that would be harder for her to do.

Percy's gaze was somewhere between the trees and it wasn't difficult for Artemis to see that he was hearing something that she wasn't. Tough, smell, hearing, probably eyesight too, all of these things were so sharp in the man in front of her, so much had increased, _improved,_ in him since they'd last met that it was almost unfathomable to believe that they were the same person.

"Lady Artemis, it has been a pleasure seeing you again, you were one of my favoured among those of the council but right now you should either take your leave or get to the safety of the canopy above." Percy told her quietly before sending her a warm, yet still tired, smile. She wasn't really sure how to respond, nobody had ever told her to leave in such a gentle yet authorized manor.

"Is that a command Perseus?" She asked him with a raised eyebrow. This was her chance to see exactly how far he had strayed from Olympus. Did he still align himself with them, choosing to serve them in their time of need? He'd rejected Godhood twice and he probably would have done so a third time if he'd stayed long enough after Pandora's Box had been cast into an abyss but he was gone before the rewards ceremony had ended. How long did he plan to throw himself into the fire in the name of Olympus? Or maybe he had already stopped and this was just his way to ensure the absolute safety of the world one final time.

"No ma'am but you must understand that you are by far my favourite Goddess and I cannot fight a fast approaching Dragon if I am to worry about your safety, so please, for the sake of my duty, leave this to me and get yourself somewhere out of reach." Percy turned away from her, no longer able to ignore the building rumbling beneath their feet. The sounds, the air, the scent... It was all starting to hit Artemis as well, the Dragon was hunting and they were the prey it had in mind.

She was his favourite Goddess? That was news to her though it was hardly surprising. He'd only ever found himself dealing with the Gods and Goddesses of the council and among those he hated Aphrodite, and then there was Hera and Athena who both hated him. That left only herself, Hestia and Demeter, the latter of whom he had only spoken to a handful of times and most of those had been about cereals and crops. It wasn't that hard to believe that herself and Hestia would be the only ones that he actually liked but in the beginning she'd been nothing but cold to him, how had she become his favourite Goddess?

Before she could answer him, he slowly pulled the long blade out of the scabbard on his back. It shined a brighter silver than any sword that she'd ever seen before. It was something that she'd be proud to carry into a battle.

Having decided that he'd done way more in the way of tracking the Dragon, she would let him have his self appointed duty and do what he had come to do. Jumping high into the shadowed branches above her she continued to watch the son of Poseidon with an eagle eyed stare. She could see a large mass further down the hill, charging straight at Percy with an impressive speed considering it's size.

It wasn't until it was almost upon Percy that she finally got a good look at the Dragon. It's body from the neck to the base of the tail was the size of a range rover and it's neck was another meter in length, the tail spanned over two from the base to the tip. It had azure coloured scales that ran the entire length of it's body with streaks of an equally vibrant shade of red that adorned the sides of it's legs and across it's spined back. It's horns were cream coloured and looked a lot softer than they should.

The Dragon came to a halt just meters away from where Percy was standing, no longer concealed by shadows. What the Hades was he doing just standing like that!? The Dragon's eyes narrowed into small horizontal slits of amber that seemed to be critically analysing the curious case in front of it.

"That's right." She heard Percy's deep voice from below, "I'm a Dragon too." The two of them slowly started to circle one another, neither eager about the thought of being caught out. This was a battle that only a Dragon could participate in. Artemis could see between the lines of reality below her, the core instincts that Percy had were almost all entirely primal, he really was a Dragon stuck inside the body of a Demi-God.

"See this?" He asked, never once breaking his stare with the Dragon who had let its eyes dart towards the sword for a fraction of a second before once again latching on to Percy's piercing emerald gaze. "This is pure silver that I crafted with my own hands.

"It's a sword made from the scales of the Mirroth, the first Ancient Dragon I ever killed. Mirroth was a very interesting existence as she was made from a strengthened type of silver, and as you're about to find out, us Dragons don't like silver that much." Percy explained, slowly waving the tip of his silver sword in a circle across the ground. The Dragon offered not even a grunt in response but it was clear from the rising tension that one could almost see.

"Dragon silver, of course he'd be using a weapon made from the material that he's weak against." Artemis muttered quietly, sometimes he could be dense and idiotic but now he had the mind of a Dragon so why had he purposely fashioned a sword out of that dead Dragon's skin if he was weak against it?

"You see, while I am definitely a Dragon, I still have the body of a Demi-God, and my skin does pretty well against silver, so I can touch this all day long and not get hurt, you however... Well, I'll just have to show you." Percy grinned and for the first time Artemis' heart skipped a beat and she didn't know what the Hades it was from. His face was clear as day with the rain avoiding him so quickly. His eyes gained a new hue of power and almost glowed in the dark of night but it was the grin that had caused so much shock and surprise in the Goddess when she'd seen it. He had brilliant white teeth, not out of the ordinary for most people but what other people didn't have a set of extremely sharp canines sticking out, much like that of the Dragon he was staring down.

Within the blink of an eye he pushed forwards, kicking up a trail of dust where his feet had been and leaving a silver trail of light behind where his swords had slashed through the air. The Dragon swiped out with a beefy hand lined with razor sharp claws but never managed to its mark as Percy had ducked and rolled under its arm before sliding its sword along the inside of the raised hand where the scales were softer and unprepared for an attack from a silver sword made from Mirroth's spine.

It was true what he'd said about that sword, it had taken him nearly twelve hours of conflict to take down that Ancient Dragon who was arguably one of the most powerful ones to have been released. After he'd killed Mirroth he'd taken her head and the first meter of her spine, the latter of which he had fashioned into the beautiful silver piece that he handled gracefully as he dashed around underneath the young Dragon's body, sending slashes and lunges so fast that even Artemis was struggling to follow his movements.

The fight between Dragons had gone on for another ten minutes, if that, before the baby Dragon had fallen to the ground finally exhausted of energy and bleeding out from all of the stabs it had received with the silver sword. "Unfortunately you aren't important enough for me to take your head as a trophy, your horn will do." He muttered to himself before slicing cleanly through. He had to take trophies from his kills otherwise he'd lose track of his progress.

In his humble underground home in the forests of the Allegheny national park he'd built a room dedicated to his hunts. On the walls there were ten plaques each one with a name and awaiting a head to be put on it. So far he'd only successfully tracked down one Ancient Dragon, Mirroth the one with a skeleton made from pure Dragon Silver.

Artemis dropped back down to the floor with a soft thud where her feet impacted the moist muddy earth beneath their feet. Most of the area was either covered in a sheen of dying embers or showered in wood chips and Dragon blood.

"What do you do with the body?" Artemis asked him, catching Percy's attention. He'd been so focused on the fight and enthralled by the heat of the moment that he'd forgotten she was there all together.

"Unless it's a High Dragon or Ancient Dragon then the bodies of the younglings and lesser Dragons will degrade pretty fast after the skin is dead. The organs and everything become super weak against elements such as air and rain. They're often real tough to kill but are a pushover to bury after they're dead." Percy chuckled slightly. The skeleton would be left over but that would be buried or taken by wild animals, no Humans would even be able to see the skeleton that would be left over and any Demi-Gods would just leave it well enough alone.

The only bodies that actually needed to be tended to were those that belonged to stronger Dragons and that was a long and arduous process.

"You've been gone for so long, will you please come with me to Olympus and shed some light on where you've been the last few years? The council will want answers and I cannot be the one to tell them that you've become a Dragon." Artemis reasoned. Yeah, that would be a pretty hard task for someone in her position.

He owed her at least that much after disappearing and causing her all of the trouble she'd had in trying to find him. "Fine, I'll come to Olympus to answer the council's questions but after that, will you take me to my next location? It'll be a lot quicker than crossing the ocean." Percy muttered, unsure of whether or not he truly wanted to take on his next task, after all, the next name on his hit list was an extremely volatile Dragon known for his explosive temper and ability to breath fire hotter and far more intense than Greek fire.

"I will take you to wherever you wish to go after meeting the council." She agreed quickly before placing a hand on his shoulder. This was it, she was finally finishing her hunt, the one that had evaded her for three damn years and after all that time she wasn't even sure she was doing the right thing by bringing him back. He was willingly going with her but there must have been a genuine reason that he had fallen off of their radar right?

She was about to find out that not everything had ended happily when Percy had closed Pandora's Box.

 **A/N: Review?**


	3. Chapter 3 - The Next Step

**Chapter 3 – The Next Step**

 **A/N: I'm SUPER hungover while writing this, so...**

The vibrant flourishes of gold flashed before Percy's eyes at the exact moment that Artemis had brought him to the ground of Olympus, high above the Empire State Building, 'floor 600' as it were. The lights that lined the streets were giving off a dim light which allowed the denizens of Olympus to go about their lives however they wished.

Further across the pavilion there lied a grand set of stairs that led all the way up the the throne room of Olympus with palaces of all kinds lining the stairway right up until the last few hundred yards. Percy had to squint and almost shield his eyes against some of the eyesores that acted as palaces such as the overwhelmingly bright golden temple that belonged to Apollo and then right after that the sickening shade of bubblegum pink that belonged to none other than Aphrodite. Opposing Apollo's obnoxiously vibrant temple was that soothing pale silver that irradiated with beauty when Percy laid his eyes on it. There was no way that it belonged to anyone other than Artemis.

"Is the change purely on the insides?" Artemis' voice reached his ears, she was being quiet but she knew for a fact that he would be able to hear her. With the senses of a Dragon she was confident that he could hear and distinctly group every sound and echo on the entire of Olympus. Just by his natural instincts and senses she truly believed that he would be able to sense who was and who was not on Olympus with that alone.

"I'm sorry, can you specify?" He asked her respectfully. She was still so shocked that after returning and revealing himself only to her that he was still upholding his adamant determination to show her the respect that she usually demanded from males but then he was different from them, wasn't he?

"Your senses are all magnificently more powerful but back there with that Dragon you said your silver sword wouldn't hurt you because you had the body of a Human. You said it like you really have changed to the point where you can no longer identify as a Human." Artemis' words were very cleverly constructed, she desperately wanted Percy to give her some solid answers but she wasn't sure that he would outright fall into the verbal trap that she had laid, after-all, Dragons were some of if not THE most intelligent creatures to have ever existed which was why they were ruled as such a dangerous species and locked inside Pandora's Box.

"Lady Artemis I will ask something of you right now so that we can eliminate any more problems further down the line. If you want to know something specific then ask me straight, don't play with your words because I can see through them very clearly. You want an answer? Ask me THAT question." If he had been anyone else he would have died for the fact that he had basically just told Artemis to stop playing games and get to the point but aside from everything he was doing to hunt the Dragons and from saving Olympus three times, Artemis actually liked Percy, she actually tolerated him at a higher level than any other male in a long time.

"Fine, Perseus, what are you, specifically WHAT are you? I know you called yourself a Dragon but you look like a Human so... What are you really Perseus?" That was the golden question though, wasn't it? What was he, really? He knew that she was waiting to ask him that very question since the beginning.

Percy thought of a fitting answer for her as the two of the walked the stairs to Olympus with a few bystanders and random denizens of the city all pointing and staring. Of course they all clearly recognized the legendary hero of Olympus, the man who had toppled Kronos, slain Gaea and sealed Pandora's Box and of course, as of recently, become the Dragon Hunter.

"Quite simply I am a true Dragon. I am immortal in the sense that I can no longer age, as are all Dragons in my classification. What else?" He asked himself as though he wasn't quite certain of it himself. "Actually I think that's it, I'm the Dragon who slays his kin as decreed by Pandora's Box. I can never age I can never die, that is my curse, that I have to live for all eternity constantly hunting down my race until I am the last to stand." His words held a heavy weight of sadness and tragedy. It was clear to the master of hunters that Percy didn't even want this task set upon him, he clearly didn't want to cause an entire race, HIS race, to go extinct and by the sounds of it, he had NEVER planned on accepting any kind of immortality yet here he was, forced to walk the Earth forever.

"The immortality of a Dragon." Artemis pondered briefly before sending a very subtle gaze his way for a split second. "What are you classed as then, where do you rank among those that you hunt?" She asked, finally giving him her full attention. It had been a subtle change but over the past ten minutes Percy had noticed that her body had been growing, her hair was turning from that greatly shiny auburn to a duller shade with small traces of silver running through it. She looked to have aged to around his own age. Percy wasn't unaware of the fact that he was greatly attracted to her, she looked amazing and smelled intoxicating to him. Dragons had a very dominant primal side, something that he suspected she was aware of.

Percy had gazed into her entrancing silver eyes for long enough and instead decided to answer her, the quicker that they finished their business on Olympus, the quicker that he could get to Germany to hunt down Azazel the black Dragon of death. "To kill an Ancient Dragon you have to BE an Ancient Dragon which is part of the curse from Pandora's Box. It's not just my instincts, my personality, my intelligence and all of that which has changed, in fact the ONLY thing that has remained is the way I currently look, even my soul burns with Dragon fire." He told her before nodding towards the grand golden doors inlaid with ornate metals from all over the world. This was the threshold of the Gods, this was where the council convened and had their meetings, this was where they were about to meet the new Percy Jackson.

Artemis led the way while she silently mulled over his answer. Even his soul was draconic? That was extreme and she wasn't sure how deeply that would have had an effect on him. He was right about Pandora's Box issuing him a curse, for now and forever he would be haunted by the harrowing task which was unfairly thrown upon him.

As soon as the doors opened up before them, Percy could see that nothing had changed since the last time he had been there. The scene was just as bright and vast as it had always been, this time though the whole throne room was empty save for Zeus who sat with a tired look about him.

The King of the Gods sent his gaze towards them, taking a few seconds to register that it was Artemis walking in with someone. His lightning eyes flickered with recognition before he sat up straight at an alarming speed. Zeus had hesitated for a moment before getting off of his throne and resizing himself to suit that of Percy.

"Perseus?" His voice was low and full of shock and surprise. His nephew had returned, after three years of not knowing the boy's fate he had shown up completely out of the blue, walking side by side with Artemis no less. It was no secret to anyone around Olympus that during all of the conflicts and battlefields that had been shared between the two of them, that Percy was quite fond of Artemis and from the Goddesses' side, she was more 'tolerant' of him than she had been with anyone pretty much ever. It had spread like wildfire when people were dubbing him as Artemis' only male friend which had been something that Artemis had never denied. It was true after all, he was her friend and she'd happily keep it that way for all of the things he'd done for Olympus.

"Lord Zeus." Percy nodded before he started to kneel in front of the lightning master.

"You have no place in kneeling to me Perseus, you have saved us and the lives of our children, our families, three times without ever asking for any reward for yourself, you've even rejected Godhood twice. TWICE, nobody has ever even been offered Godhood twice and I'm sure you know that after Pandora's Box you would have been offered it once again." Zeus' words were filled with emotion, something that Percy couldn't actually ever remember him harbouring a great deal of in the first place so this was a new addition to his vast memories.

"Yes, well. I may not exactly be a God but I was forced to be immortal in the end anyway." He sighed as he casually told Zeus that he was immortal. He had a truer sense of immortality than the Gods did because of Pandora's Box.

After seeing Zeus' questioning gaze Percy decided that it would be far easier for him to explain it to the whole council and get everything done in one go to which Zeus agreed. The council had been summoned and after Poseidon had a few minutes to greet his now not missing son, the meeting had begun with Percy even having an honorary throne next to his father's.

Everything had been going smoothly until he had to face Hestia's burning tears that fell freely down her face. The council had found out that Pandora's Box had been stolen from her during the war with Gaea, they had found that out right before Percy had succeeded in closing it once again.

It was only meant to have Pandora's 'Hope' left inside but it seemed that whoever had stolen it, filled it right back up to the brim with the new evils of the world mixed with some old. After the truth had emerged in the council meeting that Percy was now actually a Dragon because of the curse from the box, Hestia couldn't hold her tears back, she ran towards him fire her flames almost being doused by the passing wind before she latched herself onto him, holding him in a tight embrace and frantically pleading him to forgive her.

"Hestia, you have nothing to apologize for. It was not your fault that it was stolen, it wasn't your fault that it was reconstructed and it was most certainly not your fault that I have become what I am because of that, now dry your eyes Goddess, there's a hearth that needs to be tended to." He told her quietly. He saw that her smile had wobbled back onto her face once again and he felt that his job was done. He had never blamed her, he could never blame her, he loved Hestia for the part that she played behind the works of everything, there was no way that he would ever bear any ill will to the Goddess of the hearth.

"Thank you." She whispered before gently putting a kiss on his cheek before returning once again to the fire in the centre of the room.

"What will you do now, son?" Poseidon asked him carefully. He'd been so focused dealing with him 'problem' that had come about as a side effect of becoming a Dragon that he'd not found time to actually see anyone between his various Dragon hunts.

"Well, I only agreed to come here because Lady Artemis asked me to, don't take it the wrong way, I'll always be the first one in the fight for Olympus but these Dragons are a task that I cannot take rest from. My job will be done when there are another nine heads mounted on my wall, so as soon as you deem it acceptable for me to leave, I shall be departing to Germany to hunt down a particularly nasty piece of work." Percy told them all, he had garnered a huge amount of respect from ALL of the Gods that had gathered in that room, even Ares was proudly promoting a smile for the son of Poseidon. Turning into a Dragon just to hunt down other Dragons? That was a concept that Ares respected.

"Then I have a proposal to make." Zeus announced before sending his attention towards Artemis, "This journey that young Perseus has been embarking on is... It's not a path that he should walk alone and I don't think there's a single person more suited to aid him than the Goddess of the Hunt. We've all heard that you see him as a friend so what would you say to that?" Zeus' tone was caring and surprisingly he wasn't ordering Artemis to go ahead with his idea but he was actually seeing if she would agree to it. Something had happened to the old God in the past three years that had softened him immeasurably.

"I wouldn't say no and force him to stand alone in upholding his burden. If that's what you think is the best then I ask only that you personally watch over my girls and protect them diligently while I'm gone." Artemis purposely ignored the piercing emerald stare that was boring into her. He stood like a concrete statue not even moving when he breathed, never making any sound when he did so. It wasn't just his senses that had improved but everything he had any talent for before was now well above any mortal or immortal.

"Then with that being agreed to I dismiss all of you. You heard the boy, he wishes to find a fresh hunt as soon as possible and we shouldn't keep him. Perseus, please make sure to stop by every once in a while just so that we know you're safe." Zeus asked casually before winking and flashing out of the throne room in a white blaze of raw energy.

"Well that was unexpected." Percy chuckled for a second before realizing that Artemis was once again his size and standing right next to him. Really she was a lot closer than he'd expected her to be. He suspected that the scene before the Gods right now was what had sparked the 'rumour' of the two of them being friends. "I have to resupply after fighting that baby Dragon so can you take me to the national reserve park in Pennsylvania?"

"Why Pennsylvania?" Artemis queried before putting her hand on his shoulder and taking them exactly where he had asked to go. Taking only a few seconds to locate himself within the huge forests he casually pointed down the hill they were on.

"Can you take us to the bottom of the valley where the river ends? This is where my home is Lady Artemis." He told her quickly before she flashed them both to the bottom of the valley.

"Stop with the Lady this, Lady that, it's Artemis to you Perseus." She told him sternly. He had risen well above the need for formalities.

"On the condition that you call me Percy, not Perseus." He shot back immediately, the immense intelligence of the Dragon working away brilliantly and without pause. She was really coming to accept the fact that beyond seeing him as not only a male and a friend, that she was actually becoming fond of him, enough so that maybe, just maybe he may be able to soften her view on his gender all together. Either way, the fact that he was a man wasn't the first thing she thought of when she saw him, unfortunately it was his powerful gaze that seemed to render her useless and unable to think of how to approach. She almost felt like they were playing an unseen game of cat and mouse over who was the prey and who was the predator and right now she wasn't so sure that she'd ever been the one in control, not when she found herself engulfed in the vast and vibrant emeralds that sat perfectly in his iris'.

"I'm taking that as a yes." Percy announced happily. His voice had broken Artemis out of her reverie of thought and she decided not to answer him or he might have realized that she'd been too busy thinking about his bright eyes to give him a response.

"Come on, we're almost there, you can get some food or whatever it is that YOU actually have in place of sustenance. I'll show you the head of my first Dragon as well, it's breathtaking and you'll need to understand what you'll be facing if you're going to be walking this path by my side." He told her without once ever looking back. The sights, the smells, the sounds that surrounded them, all the things that Artemis knew she could feel she also knew that for Percy it was second nature to pick apart every single detail in the vast green forests around them but above that, she also knew for a fact that he kept picking up her 'scent', the same smell he had deduced could only be her when she'd been watching him from the canopy above the now dead baby Dragon's grave.

Every time she reached the prime of her stride she was closer to Percy before he moved away and every time she'd done it, he'd happily pulled in that aroma of cinnamon. Dragon's were fiercely proud and extremely dominant, his primal instincts would be screaming at him because of her exact proximity and she could already see that. He hid it well but he wouldn't be able to hide such things from Artemis.

The last thing he'd said had caught her off guard. 'To walk that path by his side'. It was small and held no further gesture than the figure of speech that he'd meant it for but for some reason that she wasn't quite sure of yet, it sent a flutter into the pit of her stomach when she thought about it. The Goddess of the Hunt and the Dragon Hunter, or rather, the Dragon Slayer as he'd called himself before, were going down a dangerous path to rid the world of one of the most capable races there ever was. Walking into his home would mark her crossing the threshold where she could no longer return from, she just wished that she'd known at the time what kind of threshold it was she was actually about to cross.

 **A/N: Review?**


	4. Chapter 4 - True Nature

**Chapter 4 – True Nature**

Percy was erratically sorting through many different boxes within what Artemis would only ever have been able to describe as a literal treasury. Dozens of chests were forced open because of their overfilled contents. How Percy had been able to amass such an amount of gold and multiple vibrant shades of gems that littered the sea of golden objects before her was just beyond her. How he'd been able to even think about doing that while hunting Dragons was almost unfathomable.

"Percy, what... W-what am I even looking at?" She asked him with a faint stutter. The room itself was quite large with ten plaques handing on the sides of the walls, each one the size of her body. One of those plaques at the very end of the room held a magnificent four horned head with an open maw filled with glinting silver teeth. The skin of the beast was scaly yet had a beautiful gleam to it where the light reflected in a spectacular gradient.

"Dragons like gold Artemis and I am no exception. Half of this was the horde that Mirroth had gathered together, the rest I've retrieved from hunting High Dragons who don't deserve a place on my wall." He gestured towards the Dragon's head as he said this. From one chest to another he continued to pace around the brazier lit wooden room that was several dozen feet underground next to the base of the river in the centre of the valley. His home really was beautiful and Artemis wondered how he'd come across it because from the outside the entrance was a very small cave opening but inside it had the look of a modern cabin.

"So this was your first. Gods they're such beautiful creatures." She whispered. The sheer size of Mirroth's head was amazing and what with the Dragon being silver and sharing a colour scheme she found herself being quite fond of the now lifeless marvel.

"Thank you." Percy's voice rumbled through a chest that he was basically half inside. She still had no idea what he was looking for because all of the chests she could see were just filled with pieces of gold and gems the size of her fists.

"I was talking about this." Artemis responded dully. She sighed at him but couldn't physically fight off the humoured smile that had crawled across her lips. He'd changed so much but some of it she couldn't help feeling was for the better.

"I'm a Dragon too Artemis, don't compliment me such and then take it away, it hurts my feelings." Percy finally reappeared, sporting a rather impressive mock pout and folding his arms. He looked too cute to have actually pulled off faking a temper tantrum but there was no way that she was about to admit that and yet, her smile still stayed on.

"Nice to see that you're not constantly stuck in 'War against the Dragons' mode and have time to crack a smile and a laugh." She pointed with a happier tone than before. She saw that in his hand he held a small dagger that was made from what looked like... Yup, he was holding a small horn that had been filed and sharpened to emulate a rather detailed dagger.

"Is that what you've been falling into chests to find?" She looked on, trying to get a better view at it. From what she could see, it was a cream coloured horn with a charred 'blade' made from the tip of the horn. It had carvings all around the base and handle but she couldn't see what they were meant to be.

"I haven't fallen into any chests, you're the only woman I've even spoken to in the past few months." He told her with a completely neutral expression on her face. Artemis just stared at him as though she genuinely couldn't figure out if he was being dense or he genuinely had thought she meant something else.

"Oh, you mean the... Right, sorry, anyway yes, this is what I've been looking for. It's the horn of a High Dragon, won't do much against a High Dragon but anything less than that will be killed pretty quickly with a few deep stabs with this, so I guess what I'm saying is... Here." He said, extending his hand towards her, offering her the horn. She looked down at it for a few seconds as she realized what he'd been saying. He was actually giving her something that he'd fought hard for.

A Dragon was gifting her something from it's treasury, she wasn't the professional on Dragons out of the two of them but she knew enough to know that it was no small gesture whether Percy realized that she knew it or not.

"But... Why? I appreciate it but that's a bit out of the blue don't you think?" She asked him with only a single raised brow to suggest that she wasn't sure how she felt about receiving something that would have been precious to the giver.

"If you ever encounter a Dragon and I'm not there to kill it then having something like that is the only way that you won't be destroyed or whatever you Gods do. Slowly reform over many years sounds about right from what I hear." Percy muttered the last part but to Artemis she'd only been focused on the part where he was ensuring her survival if she was ever to be pitted against a Dragon without him. He may not have realized it but even the small gesture that he didn't want her to be hurt was something that had struck her far more that he'd probably even meant it to.

She was about to thank him before something very peculiar struck her mind. "If you can only kill and Ancient Dragon by being an Ancient Dragon then HOW did you kill that one." She asked, only then realizing that he wouldn't have had the sworn made from Mirroth's Dragon Silver while he was actually fighting against Mirroth herself and he'd already said that nothing else would be able to kill one.

"I've already told you Artemis you just haven't been able to see through my words." He began slowly with a slight sigh. What he was going to say next must have been of some importance otherwise he wouldn't have been so bothered about having to put it into words for her understanding.

"Artemis." His voice was more focused and his green eyes were locked with hers. She couldn't look away even if she wanted to. "I AM a Dragon." He put so much emphasis into his words that she finally understood it after him having specifically told her that exact sentence so many times.

"Do you understand what I'm telling you?" He finally looked away which seemed to free her ability to look anywhere other than his mesmerizing eyes which held such mirth yet at the same time a destructive promise to bring unfathomable wrath to anyone that dared to challenge him.

"I think so, but just to make sure, please explain to me how you killed Mirroth." She told him quietly, choosing to pace further down the room to get away from his close vicinity. What was wrong with her? She'd never allowed anyone to be that close to her for such a long amount of time but here she was completely compelled by finding out the extent to the changes within him that she was willingly following him down a dangerous path and more than that, she was the one that was willingly getting closer and closer to him all the time.

Percy sighed once again before sitting on the top of a closed chest. This was the part that he hated to dwell on more than anything. "I have a small... Problem that arose shortly after the curse took hold of me and then one other time when I fought against Mirroth." He started to explain, never once letting his gaze fall upon her but instead he seemed mesmerized by the flickering fire within the brass brazier on the opposite side of the room.

"What you see before you is of course Percy Jackson, I make no claims that I am not, but..." He stopped briefly as though he was trying to figure out how he could word his thoughts. "But even physically I am a Dragon. Sheer emotion surfaced when I faced Mirroth and I brought down the silver Dragon with my claws, my teeth and the fire fuelled by my unyielding rage. Do you understand now Artemis? What I currently look like is what I chose to stick with because I cannot control my true form yet, I would salt the Earth with my own fire if I stayed in it for too long." His words stunned her into total silence.

He really was a Dragon through and through, just like he'd told her from the very beginning. His words had been vague from the start and she'd suspected that this was the case but she'd also been in denial about it because of the fact that this changed everything. It WASN'T just his instincts and personality but his flesh. He had scaled, he had talons and most of all, he was a Dragon of fire which directly conflicted with his godly nature from being the son of Poseidon. The rage of the seas and the wrath of a Dragon were fighting a constant battle inside his body.

"I shouldn't have pushed... I... I'm sorry Percy, I didn't know that you would... I just." Artemis was just so stunned that she couldn't even form a sentence, she was constantly trying to apologize for causing him to tell her that when it so clearly weighed heavily on his heart.

"Calm yourself silver Goddess, it feels good to have finally been able to tell someone and there aren't many others that I trust so don't beat yourself up about it." Percy told her before she got herself into too much of a tizzy.

"So." Artemis began after a few seconds of silence while she gathered her composure. She was a master hunter, the GODDESS of the Hunt, she NEVER lost her composure during the times she preyed on the most notoriously dangerous of beasts yet here she was, in the home of a Dragon and feeling like she'd destroyed the friendship she had with him. She pointed at the mounted head, still wanting to hear the rest of the story now that she knew the absolute truth behind the face of Percy Jackson.

"Yeah, I killed Mirroth by returning to what I truly am but from that fight I now have a weapon made from an Ancient Dragon, I can hunt the nine others without endangering everything I care about." He told her, finally regaining some of the mirth that twinkled in his eyes and pulling a slight smile. She liked that nothing seemed to actually be able to get him down after telling her. It seemed that he wasn't lying, he did feel better after being able to tell someone about it.

"Anyway, I've already got everything I need, next stop if the Black Forest in Germany, quite aptly named as well because WE are going to hunt down the one called Azazel, the black Dragon of death." He told her with a cheery smile on show.

"You know that it's hard to believe you when you smile like that, right?"

"Well what have I got to worry about? My sword can kill anything and most of the time I can reach a half transformed state if I want to. It's a lot weaker but I can control it. Still not used to the weight of my wings though." He muttered casually as he seemed to be constantly finding a new verbal train of thought.

"OK but before we go... What colour are you, I'm just curious." Artemis looked innocent but Percy's senses told him that she had probably already theorized about it and just wanted to confirm her suspicions.

"I'm a very bright shade of green, like my eyes." As he told her that, he held up his left and and right in front of Artemis' eyes, his skin bulged from the elbow onwards to show her scaly green hiding lean muscles underneath topped off with glinting razor-sharp grey talons at the tip of his fingers. After a few seconds it had returned to how it was before.

She couldn't help it, she thought it was beautiful the way that he had gained at least some level of control over his primal mind, the way that he could bring it out and send it back, to suppress the inner monster. His strength of will to have come as far as he had was intense.

"OK, Azazel, here we come." Artemis announced before she took both herself and Percy half way across the world. The moment that they found themselves to be surrounded by forests, she was caught by surprise when after not even a second she had been tackled to the floor by Percy who was on top of her, a hand cradling the back of her head and another over her mouth to stop her from making any noise.

She was alarmed and not at all happy to have been handled like that or the fact that Percy was still practically straddling her at the waist but he of all people would not do something like that without a VERY good reason. She noticed little things before seeing the bigger picture. He was silent, his gaze set on something in the distance and his nostrils lightly flaring to signify that he was silently breathing in, the scent of something thick in his nose.

Slowly he pulled a hand away from Artemis' mouth and placed a single finger above his closed lips. He got off of Artemis but remained almost prone as he pulled his silver sword out of the sheath he held on his back. It made such a small sound that Artemis herself had struggled to hear it from a few feet away. Before he pulled it out all the way he suddenly stopped and just remained as still as a statue with Artemis doing the exact same.

A few seconds of tense silence had passed by where Artemis was totally clueless as to what was going on. "Shit, he's found us, COME ON!" Percy boomed, grabbing Artemis' hand and bolting down the side of a hill. She still hadn't even been able to open her mouth once and Percy was already rocketing away at speeds that she was struggling to keep up to him with.

"Azazel has caught my scent and I have no idea how it's so much stronger than usual." His voice was distorted by the wind that whipped around the two of them but she could still just about hear him.

"If we find a river we'll be safe, untrackable and I'll fill you in on everything. Don't even hesitate to go in the water, I am still the strongest ever son of Poseidon, if I say that you're going to be unharmed by being in my domain then there's not a damn thing that my father can do about it, now let's go." He told her, still setting the rapid pace that was constantly impressing Artemis. Just what else did he have hidden up his sleeve?

In the distance, a roar echoed throughout the sky and vibrated across the land. Birds left the tree tops in flocks one by one like a Mexican wave of wings. "Kom fin nir kiin, Azazel!" Percy's booming voice matched the previous roar in sheer volume. What language even was that!? Artemis' eyes bored into the back of Percy's head, had he just declared war on the Dragon that had given them a fresh response in the form of turning the sky red with fire.

"Hahaha!" Percy's laughter reached her ears and sent her into a world of her own that she was brutally ripped out of when she saw Percy skid to a halt and turn to face her. She hadn't even begun to slow down so it surprised her to no small amounts when instead of crashing straight into him, he had simply placed his hands gracefully inside hers before pushing himself backwards off of the little rocky outcrop they'd ended up on. He pulled her down with him off of the edge of the miniature cliff, the vast blueness of a lake sat beneath them as they plummeted towards it.

He'd found a water source and already put his plan into motion and now the only thing that was left was for them to safely enter Poseidon's domain without him killing Artemis for doing so without permission. She hoped Percy was right about that, after all, she wasn't sure she was going to be rational once she was stuck underwater with a prince of the sea, she might end up doing something she'd never have ever thought she'd do with all of the sheer thrill and adrenaline pumping through her body from the act of witnessing a war commence between two Dragons, two extremely powerful Dragons.

 **A/N: Review? For anyone that wants to know, the thing Percy shouts to Azazel means 'Let the hunt begin'. Apparently.  
**


	5. Chapter 5 - A Dragon's Honour

**Chapter 5 – A Dragon's Honour**

Artemis was inside her own little personal 'bubble' of air that was following her body perfectly. Percy on the other hand, was gracefully floating about the beautiful blue depths of the lake with expert precision and skill. Under the water his body seemed to have adopted a soft green aura about him which didn't surprise Artemis at all, everything about him was somehow tied to that colour.

Percy finally let his gaze make it's way to Artemis and that was the exact moment that she saw it. His eyes were still the same emerald colour and just as piercing as ever but they had changed into narrow slits the same as any Dragon she'd ever encountered. They reminded her of the sheer intelligence that they all had in common, the cold analytical mind that was constantly processing everything at a million miles an hour.

"Down here, Azazel cannot smell our scent." He told her when he popped his head into her air bubble. So far she'd been rendered completely speechless by him. How had this even all started? She'd found her girls being hunted by the thing they were hunting. That was it, so how she was now under a lake without the danger of drowning, staring into the most beautiful pair of eyes that she'd ever found herself looking out, was entirely beyond her.

"Erm," She started before coughing, surely she could come up with a better response than that but if Percy had noticed her immensely obvious blunder, then he was politely choosing to ignore it. "I can only assume that's because of the water clouding our scent? What will happen when we leave the lake?" She asked him. She was worried about the prospects of this Dragon turning out to be as tenacious as she'd heard them to be and if that was the case then it was more than likely going to be waiting for the two of them to emerge from their hiding place so that it could pick up their scent once more.

"By the time we leave the lake, we'll already have a plan to deal with Azazel, I mean, I DID have a plan but when I expertly constructed said plan I didn't have a Goddess willing to take me to the very centre of my target area. He must have sensed the power you used to transport us because the very instant that we arrived he was suspicions and started to smell us out. That was when he caught my scent." He shrugged briefly before donning a carefree expression and moving back into the water, content with swimming around her bubble aimlessly while she desperately tried to figure out a solution to the problem.

"So, how long will it take for Azazel to pick up our scent when we're out of the water?" She decided that if she had to fight against an Ancient Dragon then having one with the same power would actually help her to formulate a worthy plan.

Percy shrugged though which didn't help her at all, "After having found your scent once, I'll always know where you are whenever you're within a few miles of me, that's just how Dragons work though to me you mean more than simply prey so that might have an adverse effect on it. It would be safer to assume that Azazel will be able to find both of us pretty quickly." Percy had stopped aimlessly swimming and instead was lying there with his hands across the back of his head, just casually relaxing under a lake that may well have been besieged upon by a Dragon.

Artemis couldn't open her mouth after that. Every time Percy answered one of her questions, his phrasing would give her two more that she simply couldn't ask. Did he even mean ANYTHING by saying that she meant more to him than simply prey!? This was the first time in her thousands of years living that she was genuinely feeling like nothing more than prey.

"I've got it!" Percy interrupted her train of thought once again, "If we ask him REALLY nicely to lie down, close his eyes and count to ten million, then maybe, just maybe, we can get through this without offending any of the other Dragons. You know, offending them more than I already have." Percy laughed to himself when he saw the completely dead-panned gaze that Artemis gave him. She was unamused to say the least.

"Are all Dragons this bad with their jokes?" She huffed slightly, awaiting an answer from the one before her who just scoffed at her question. All Dragons? How ridiculous!

"Artemis, there are like, seven or eight Dragons EVER that can even speak some broken level of English. I'm likely the only one that will ever tell you a knock knock joke." He told her with a slight degree of incredulity attached to his tone, almost as if she should have known that already.

"Then how are you even able to converse with them?" She pointed out. Her eyes were wide with wonder and she looked like a curios child shrouded in sheer innocence. Percy couldn't help but find it cute, he wanted to point it out to her and tell her that she looked adorable but he also liked living without being shot in the genitals multiple times so he decided rather wisely to keep his comments about Artemis' level of cuteness to himself.

"Did you not hear me earlier? Dragons are old, so very old. We speak in Dragon tongue, a very old language made for the Dragons by the Dragons. Huh, that sounded like an infomercial, awesome." Percy muttered slightly before returning his wonderful eyes towards Artemis, "Let's go, I'm going to return us to the surface, there's not going to be a much more effective plan for taking Azazel's head other than to just approach him gun's blazing." Percy told her confidently. His happy and cheery expression was gone and he had changed into full war mode. She wanted to see him transform, she wanted to see the true power he held but after he'd told her that he couldn't control it, she knew that the chances of her seeing a Dragon that she could fight beside were incredibly slim.

"We don't have any guns." Artemis told him casually. The two of them started to rise towards the surface and Percy let out an audible sigh at Artemis' lack of mortal knowledge.

"It's a Human phrase, we don't have to have guns to go in gun's blazing. It basically just means that we're going to take everything on head first." By the time Percy had finished explaining his choice of metaphor, they had reached the point where the water rippled around them. Percy watched with intense focus at the swirling mass of dark clouds that were gathering overhead, that was sure to keep the mortals away from them at least. High above the end of the valley there was a blotch of the purest black that Artemis had ever seen, the thing was the same size as her fist because of the distance.

"Bok los nau mu! Azazel, I will bring you down just as I did to Mirroth!" Percy's voice was so loud that Artemis wasn't certain but she could have sworn that she saw the vibrations of it in the air as they echoed down the valley all the way. Within seconds, the black spot in the horizon had unfurled some humongous wings that were at least three times the length of the body either side. It dropped from it's perch and glided towards them.

"I never thought I'd be saying this but now that I'm living through this exact experience, Dragons are truly terrifying." Artemis whispered, barely restraining herself from grabbing Percy and taking them both to the safety of Olympus. She had to mentally reprimand herself, she was a hunter, this is what they did. Percy was as content as ever to continue to stand tall against the oncoming threat of the massive Dragon that was flying straight towards him but then, he would be wouldn't he? This was what he did, Percy Jackson was a Dragon Slayer.

Seconds had passed before the ground rumbled and the trees shook all around them from the gargantuan force exerted where Azazel had landed with all fours on the ground. Percy held his sword by his side with no signs of raising it against Azazel. This was the first interactions of two Dragons.

"Fin graag draac!" Azazel's head made Mirroths look like nothing, just the black Dragon's head was bigger than the baby Dragon Percy had killed previously whereas Mirroth's head was the size of Artemis' body.

"You're going to need a bigger plaque for this one." Artemis whispered to which she was ignored by Percy but it didn't prevent Azazel from glaring at her. It seemed that even if he couldn't speak the tongue, he understood it well enough.

"English Azazel? It would make this confrontation a lot easier." Percy cocked his head to the side as if struck by an off though, "A lot less exposition as well." He muttered under his breath. He knew for a fact that Azazel was ranked among the highest of the Ancient Dragons and over his lifetime before being sealed in Pandora's Box had become a master of many languages aside form the Dragon's own.

"As you wish green Dragon, but make no mistake, I will not hesitate to end you, I only gave you the honour of the Dragon's meet because I am not an unfair Ddraig. I can smell your scent, it is overwhelming, full to it's every component with incredible power and that is an undeniable sign of your true nature. You are a Dragon through and through, though some might dispute it because of your favoured form, the both of us here and now know for a fact that you are one of us." Azazel's voice was rich and deep yet well spoken if not a little bit slow. He hadn't used that language in a long time and wanted not to mess it up.

Percy was slightly taken back, for one titled as the black Dragon of Death, he had been nothing but respectful, he had granted Percy with the tradition of a Dragon's meet where the two would greet one another face to face peacefully before commencing battle.

"Very well, I thank you Lord Azazel for your respect. I believe you already know the reason that I have had my hand forced in upholding this disgusting duty and as such I will not only be taking your head," Percy slowly pulled out a vial on a chain around his neck that was glowing ominously with a blue light, "But I will also take your soul to add to the burden I have. I will respect your honour with some of my own and will fight you fairly, the Goddess will not intervene." Percy's words struck Artemis like a wrecking ball.

She was being forced to sit back and watch while Percy fought off the ridiculously large Dragon in front of them. "I was impressed with the hearsay that you toppled Mirroth, though a small Dragon she was tough and I suspect that blade on your back was your trophy from her. You surprise me even more so in the flesh, very well. I shall return to my perch, shout for me when you are ready to commence, it won't be hard to miss if you really are planning on fighting me as you should." With that, the grand black Dragon ripped through the air with his wings before turning tail and returning to the spot he'd been at before.

Artemis wanted to ask him about the necklace she'd seen but found that her mind was quickly derailed from her thoughts when she saw him taking his sword off of his back and the necklace off off of himself before placing them in a pile next to her. "Per-"

"No. You, sit here, watch my sword and my souls and wait patiently for me to return, please and thank you." He told her confidently. She'd never, NEVER, been spoken to like that before, much less from a man. She didn't even know how to respond, should she shoot him? Should she do something that a virgin Goddess who had sworn to forgo the company of men definitely shouldn't do? So many thoughts raged through her mind.

Wait, what was that last one?

"He has shown me the respect from one Dragon to another so I shall do the same, besides, look at the size of him, I cannot defeat him with my sword as a Human. Man, I really didn't want to have to resort to this on my second Ancient Dragon but I guess I have you to rely on if I get out of control." He told her with a sigh before taking his leather jacket off, followed by his shirt. When he was done, to which Artemis had become greatly flustered by, he was standing in his boots and trousers with his lean upper body completely exposed. There was a small tattoo over his heart of a trident.

"No, but-" Artemis tried to get a word in but again she was interrupted by him. His soft gaze that he'd given her ever since they'd left his home had hardened in a split second and turned to a glare of steel. She was feeling even more like prey in the presence of the deadly hunter before her.

"Nothing will prevent me from going through with this Artemis but if it makes you feel any better, I have a plan for all of this which I'll tell you after I've finished my business here, I believe that Azazel has already figured out what I plan to do." Percy told her. His glare softened when he thought about being too hard on her. In the three years he'd been missing he'd risen well above the Gods but they weren't used to being treated as such and more importantly, he had come to care a great deal about her, or rather, his instincts screamed at him every single time he looked at her, he had to exercise extreme control whenever he was around her or she'd very quickly be trying to kill him if he went with it and tried to claim her as his mate.

"What do you mean?" The question hung in the air while Percy trudged towards the lake. The transformation he was going to undergo wasn't pretty and he'd rather spare Artemis from seeing him in such a state before returning how he planned.

"I mean that the Dragons, EVERY single Dragon that I've hunted down, none of them have exercised and evil will of their own. They're being forced to do the things that makes me have to slay them. Whoever stole Pandora's Box from Hestia and filled it up is the one who had set out to curse me in the first place. The Dragon's are innocent." Percy's words echoed around her mind while she watched him wade into the lake before being completely submerged. It had only taken a few minutes of tense silence before the entire lake bulged and exploded outwards from the centre, sending great waves crashing down on the shore.

She couldn't believe her eyes but right there in front of her, rising into the sky was an emerald green Dragon with sharp spines sticking out along it's back. He was easily the same size as Azazel if not larger with his huge arms that were tipped with talons the size of her arms. With a roar of defiance and power, the two Dragons flew towards one another. This was what she had wanted all along but she was about to see that the green Dragon was in a league of it's own.

 **A/N: So Percy is now a forty foot Dragon... Review? Yo, forgot to mention that the Dragon language is totally from Skyrim. I doubt I have the capacity to create an entirely new language. You know, not in the next couple of days at least.  
**


	6. Chapter 6 - Back And Forth

**Chapter 6 – Back And Forth**

Sharp claws struck out only to be closely followed by flashes and flourishes of emerald green and obsidian black. Azazel was fast, extremely fast considering his huge size but Percy was just as quick. Artemis was lost for words, she'd fought against Dragons in the past and even Drakons but these beasts were almost and entirely new breed, she was struggling to even follow them by sight. Up above in the azure skyline the two colossal horned creatures were swiping and punching almost light humans then switching between scratching and biting like animals before they had finally found themselves fighting on a ranged battlefield.

What came next was something that Artemis hadn't even thought about, surely that wasn't even going to be possible for what she'd seen? Azazel's large maw opened up, the inside being illuminated by flickers of orange and red. Percy's draconic jaw mimicked Azazel's and before she could even think of what the two duelling Dragons were doing, both of them bellowed fire across the sky at one another.

So as a human Percy was capable of immense control over water as he was a son of Poseidon yet as a Dragon he was able to breath such intense flames. Percy's flames had come out weaker and the emerald Dragon had been forced to go into a dive through the sky in order to avoid being burnt by Azazel's stronger fire.

The silver Goddess' heart had been brutally thumping against her ribcage ever since she'd been shushed by Percy, finally understanding what he was going to do. Why was it that she was so massively conflicted about him? The danger that he was putting himself in by fighting against an Ancient Dragon, was that the reason that her chest was almost hurting from the pounding beat of her heart or was it something else, something deeper than that, what was the real reason that she was so worried about his safety? If he died now then he'd die as the greatest hero that Olympus had ever seen, she was sure that all of the Big Three would not rest until he was directly granted Elysium, but then, that would mean that Artemis would no longer see him... Was that it?

Artemis was ripped from her questioning mind and back into reality when a blaze of red caught her attention from the corner of her eye. The two Dragons had flown past her at incredible speeds and accidentally set fire to the treeline in the distance. There was nothing that she could do about that, not when they were both fighting and would probably set fire to it again right after she'd doused it.

Artemis watched but she wasn't really watching the fight between two Dragons as she was watching the man she knew as Percy Jackson engulfed in his own rage, drowning from the weight of the emotions that he'd carried on his shoulders, everything that he did, everything that he was doing for the Dragons was something that only he could do. It sounded like he was killing them to free them from the evil control that had been inflicted upon them. So why was he collecting their souls?

Another loud roar had caught her senses and when she turned she almost yelped in joy. Percy had Azazel grounded, massive claw tears could be seen in droves through the soft fibres of the black Dragon's wings, yet the fight continued, it was only over when one of them was breathless and lost of life. The green Dragon dashed around, backing Azazel up towards the water's edge, the sky was off limits with his wings in such a damaged state. Fire erupted from Percy's swollen throat before smashing straight into Azazel's body like a carpet of red death.

The Dragon Hunter tackled Azazel into the lake behind where they had both been submerged entirely before the water had stilled itself and any signs of fighting had ceased to Artemis' senses. This was where it was make or break, only one of them was ever going to emerge from the lake after such an assault and she desperately hoped that it was Percy. She was going to give him one Hades of an earful for making her stay-put during such a dangerous moment, she was a Goddess, she would NOT be spoken to like that, even if he was considered to be equal in power to Ancient Dragon's who garnered as much respect as the Gods, maybe even more because of their unfathomably high pride and power that they possessed.

After minutes of silence, the water rippled which made Artemis literally jump forwards with hope. Out of the slow tide, Percy rose looking tired, wet and ragged of breath. Tired he could deal with, short of breath? Sure, but the fact that he was wet meant that he was extremely low in strength. If his body wasn't doing something that he usually did subconciously then he was almost past the point of exhaustion.

He sported a cheeky and triumphant grin when he saw the immense displeasure on Artemis' face. Across his chest were three huge claw marks that were fresh and had lines of blood dripping from them. No amount of water could heal the marks that had been made with the claws of an Ancient Dragon and stamped in with the flames of equal intensity.

"Percy you're hurt!" Artemis rushed forwards and caught the exhausted son of Poseidon who took the next few minutes on his knees just gathering his breath. He sent a lazy gaze towards the three claw marks on his chest that would no doubt scar up with quite a vibrant difference between the skin around them.

"Those are gonna look so awesome once they've healed. Guess I'll be resting for quite some time before taking on the next Dragon." Percy laughed to himself before looking up at Artemis expectantly. He'd been expecting something from her ever since he went into the lake to transform into his full Dragon form.

"What?" Artemis asked him, noticing his look.

"Firstly, I managed to reign myself in before going on a rampage, though, that might just be because of how much strength that fight has cost me, and secondly, aren't you going to say anything? Threaten to castrate me? Hurt me on sheer principle for speaking to you like that?" Percy began listing off things that he was highly expecting her to act upon. To his surprise she just huffed at him before pointing to his clothes. There was the slightest tint of red in her cheeks when she did so. She hated men, or, nearly all men, but she wasn't above admitting that Percy was attractive. Immensely attractive.

"I'm obviously not pleased with how you've spoken to me but seeing as you were triumphant, I guess that I can-HEY! Where are you going!?" Artemis demanded. She'd begun her speech with the intent to see whether or not Percy would register any regret on his face from talking to her like he had but instead he'd hopped over to his pile of clothes and picked up the necklace that he'd been carrying before jogging back towards the lake and just ignoring Artemis entirely.

"Getting Azazel's soul. If I don't do it soon then the soul will die with the body. If I don't get Azazel's soul then I can't revive him after I destroy the malicious power that's infiltrating their minds." Percy explained with a casual shrug before diving backwards into the lake, firmly clutching onto the necklace.

So that was it, that was why he'd been carrying that necklace and fretting over the Dragon's soul. It wasn't to make him stronger or anything like that, she doubted that as a Dragon there was any way that he could get any stronger. He wanted the soul so that he could revive the Dragons once they were no longer being controlled by whomever had stolen Pandora's Box and filled it back up with horrors of the world.

She knew, she could TELL that Percy hated the duty that was bestowed upon him by the curse of the Box. He was a Dragon now, that was what he was at heart and he had to fight every last Ancient Dragon because of his selfless act in saving the world for a third time. It wasn't fair, Artemis wouldn't have wished a life like his upon anyone but Percy Jackson was different wasn't he?

Percy was one step ahead of the game. Artemis was finding herself growing more and more impressed by everything that he did, he was saving the Dragons before he was even raising a single hand against them.

The creatures were immensely powerful and even more prideful but there were often majestic and peaceful creatures of intelligence. If they were freed of the ill will imposed on them, then they would always prefer a life of solitude that they were being allowed to live.

"You really are amazing." Artemis whispered just as Percy breached the surface of the water.

"Sorry, did you say something?" He asked her. He readjusted the necklace so that the little vial on the bottom was sitting comfortably against his nicely built chest, it swung freely across the trident tattoo that Artemis couldn't help but glance at whenever it did.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." He told her. She almost screamed at him when she realized that she'd not responded to him because she'd been far too busy staring at his muscular chest. She couldn't be doing this, she couldn't keep thinking these things. For Gods sakes, she was acting like a school girl around him and she didn't even know why!

"Shut up. How are you planning on getting Azazel's head back to your trophy room?" She asked, getting him to focus on something at least remotely to everything that had happened.

"I'm not." He told her as casually as he'd been for pretty much the entire time they had been in Germany. She did a double take. He wasn't bringing the head back with him? Space was an issue to be fair, she wasn't sure how he would fit that thing inside that trophy room of his, it would take up a great deal of the space as it was.

"You're not?" She asked, prodding the conversation further.

"No. You are." He answered her with a smile of brilliant white teeth that up until this point in her life she'd always found aggravating because it had usually come from Apollo but for whatever reason when it was Percy giving her a warm smile of gleaming teeth she suddenly didn't mind it as much.

"Why am I taking it?" She asked him defensively. Her train of thought was constantly switching tracks between their conversation and her thoughts of Percy where she was on the defensive about why she was thinking about him in such a way.

"Because you're a Goddess, you can shrink it and transport it back to my home instantly. You're a kind, wonderful and beautiful Goddess that would definitely help me out instead of making me carry a one tonne Dragon's head from Germany to Pennsylvania. Do you need any other excuse? Because I can probably think of a few." The entire time that Percy had been speaking, he'd been moving on from one point to the next without giving Artemis any time to question his wording.

"Just... Use your instincts." She told him with a sigh. This was what he was like, he was having fun playing around with her, that much was for sure.

"Really?" He questioned with a raised eyebrow. It looked like he wanted to take a step forwards but hesitated and remained where he was. "Because ever since I met you my instincts have been screaming at me to take you and make you mine. It's a Dragon thing, but I also like living without an arrow in my genitals, so I think my instincts are best left alone right now." He told her. Percy's attitude had never once changed despite the fact that he had openly just told Artemis that he wanted to make her 'his' as in make her his mate. To Dragons that was one of the most sacred things they had to share between one another, the bond that mates had.

Artemis had no words and was even more conflicted about how she actually felt about that. Instead of responding. She clicked her fingers, taking herself, Perseus and the now severed head of Azazel back to the outside of Percy's little home back in the forest closer to New York. She deserved to have some rest away from this Dragon's mind games, he may not have even been doing it on purpose but she knew she no longer held the power in their constant back and forth and that disturbed her.

 **A/N: Review?**


	7. Chapter 7 - The Forged Bond

**Chapter 7 – The Forged Bond**

Percy was half laying on a simple brown sofa, wearing only his leather trousers, and resting his feet on a pouffe of the same colour. There was a gentle fire crackling away in the corner of his homestead with a few braziers lit across the walls to illuminate the small living room. The walls had been painted a calming shade of azure that reminded him of the skies.

Artemis had told herself that if Percy had promised that he'd stay at his home and rest for the next few days, that she would take her the chance to get away from him and the things that he was doing to her. She was lying to herself though and she mentally scolded herself for becoming so easily enthralled by him as she walked into his living room with a herbal tea in her hands. She gently set it down next to the sleeping Dragon who didn't seem to have awoken due to her footsteps.

"Thanks." He muttered sleepily, not bothering to reach for it. It seemed that he was either far too comfortable or he was actually still mostly asleep and had only picked up the scent of the tea and thanked her instinctively.

Artemis sat silently just watching the green Dragon. He'd been amazing in his fight and his true form was something to marvel at but to Artemis, there was nothing greater than the man that he'd turned into from all of the incredible hardships he'd overcome during his life.

His burden was one that she wouldn't wish upon her enemies and yet he'd taken it head on and never let it keep him down. The Goddess stopped fighting against her urge to look at his body, instead just accepting that she found him almost irresistible. Her eyes rested on the three fresh claw marks that ran from his shoulder to his hip from right to left. They'd heal eventually according to Percy but half a day after his fight and with constant wet towels draped over his chest, they'd only done as much as stopped bleeding after this long.

She was beginning to worry but her mind went back to something that he'd told her before. That he was immortal to time and death because of the curse of the box? If he'd really meant it how it sounded, then Percy simply could not die until he was the last Dragon left, but there was no way for him to actually know that for sure, so Artemis realized that she just couldn't let him be as reckless as he'd been earlier that day.

"Cinnamon." Percy grumbled with a yawn before pushing forwards and getting up. He stretched his arms out in front of his chest, the skin tightened and a little bit of blood came out of each of the claw marks on his chest where he'd stretched them too much. "Oh, hello milady. Didn't realize you'd still be here." He muttered casually before reaching for the black t-shirt he'd placed at the side of the sofa. Quickly getting dressed after he'd applied some bandages to his chest so that his top wouldn't stick to the blood, he took a sip of the green tea. Delight worked its way across his face because of the brew that the Goddess had made for him.

"Percy, how did you know that the black Dragon was in Germany? Can you just feel the presence of all the Ancient Dragons?" The silver Goddess queried, determined to bring her focus away from Percy's chest, that and the disappointment that she had because said chest was no longer available for her to look at.

Percy's gaze had locked onto her, staring intently with those piercing emerald eyes of his that almost made her squirm from their incredible intensity. What was going through his mind when he looked at her like that?

It was happening more and more with each passing moment that they were around one another, Artemis was feeling like nothing other than prey in the eyes of a predator, and worse than that she was quickly finding that if that was the case, in his eyes, she was fine with that.

The man that had returned after three years only to be so much more than he already was. It was like he'd left their world just to kick fate in the teeth before coming back to beat up anyone who'd taken over his metaphorical throne while he'd been missing.

He'd been slouching in his attempts at hiding the fact that he couldn't stop inhaling her scent whenever she was within a certain distance of her, but recently, she'd found that SHE was doing it to him just as much. The fresh smell of on ocean breeze, not overwhelming but with just enough of a presence to make her consciously think about the way that the moon and the ocean always worked perfectly with one another.

"This tea is actually really good." Percy commented with surprise in his eyes. He looked like he was briefly analysing the contents of the cup for a few second, possibly trying to separate all of the ingredients, before he brought it back up to his lips and finished off the contents in one go.

There was thin trail of tea that fell from the side of his lips and travelled down his chin. He'd been about to swipe it away but before he knew what was happening, Artemis was standing in front of him, gently pushing her thumb across the side of his mouth, getting rid of the green tea while she stared into his eyes.

There was a few second of tense silence that had fallen upon them where the only things to be heard was the crackling of the fire behind them. Suddenly Artemis had pushed herself away from him, breaking out into an involuntary shiver, "What are you doing to me Percy?" She whispered, sitting back down in the chair, refusing to let her eyes meet his.

"I don't know if it's my fault, Artemis, but it's not just you that it's happening to." He told her firmly as he approached her. She wasn't sure what he was doing or whether she wanted him to come any closer but the feeling she got just from him slowly closing the distance was one of security and comfort.

She sent a questioning gaze his way as she knew her words would fail her sooner or later. As if he'd read her mind, Percy slowly enclosed Artemis' soft hand in his own and gently placed it over the part of his chest that she knew had a trident tattoo over the top. His heart, whilst slow and rhythmic, thundered powerfully against his ribs with each beat. It wasn't fast or unplaced but it was incredibly strong. "It happens whenever you're near me. Us Ancient Dragons, we all have an absolute sense of loyalty, so much so that when we find our partners, they undergo the changes that we do as well." He calmly explained. Artemis stared into his eyes with shock.

"You might not have realized it and I know that this has happened in such a short amount of time, but you've subconsciously accepted me for what I am, and that has been the foundation for us both changing." He slowly bowed his head to her. Was it shame that was written over his features?

"I'm sorry if that wasn't what you wanted, it's not something that any of us have control over, it's just what happens between two powerful souls." He whispered from where his head was hung. Artemis had no idea what she should have done in that situation. She wanted to slap him for being so stupid, if it was something he had no control over then there was no reason for him to be accepting the blame.

"Souls are unpredictable things, just like beating hearts, but they make their own decisions yet sometimes those decisions are ones that are being made by the people's minds as well, Percy." She responded just as quietly, unsure that she could meet his gaze if he chose to look at her.

"I'm sorry." He told her quietly, his grip got tighter but an almost undetectable margin. Artemis' body moved of its own accord and without her mind thinking. Both of her hands freed themselves and gently held Percy's face, forcing his eyes to meet hers.

She had no words for him, but there didn't need to be any. It seemed that he greatly liked the sensation of his face between her hands as he almost subconsciously nuzzled her palms for a few moments. They really were all animals, beautiful and majestic creatures with souls of their own.

"I don't know what my soul thinks it wants, but no matter how hard I try, I can't pull myself to tear away from you." She whispered, closing her eyes as she couldn't face him or the implication of what her words were saying, but she never let go of his face. As he kneeled in front of her, the sides of his face being gently held in place by the silver Goddess that had helped him hunt an Ancient Dragon, a Goddess that had infiltrated all of his senses and turned him into something else.

"I can't put into words what you've done to me, or what is happening to the both of us, but it's something that I don't want to stop. I'll walk this path for as long as time lets me, but I guess for now, I need to sleep." Artemis could see the hesitation in Percy's eyes as he slowly broke free from her and stood up before walking through some hallways.

What the hell had she just been doing? She was a virgin Goddess, sworn to forgo the company of men. She was infamous for hating men in nearly ALL situations but here she was, with Percy Jackson doing the things she'd just done and finding absolutely no false reasons for her doing it. She'd done that entirely of her own will.

Whatever was happening to her was happening because of him and she could see that he was having the exact same situation. As Percy got further and further away, the warm feeling of comfort had started to fade. He'd gone to the deepest part of his underground home, a place that had felt almost like a forge. It was the only place that he claimed to be able to sleep this far away from the ocean.

She knew that's where he'd gone to be able to sleep, she could feel his presence, it was far stronger than it had been, than it ever would have been from the point of view a Goddess had for sensing those of divine blood. She had a special kind of link to him now, something that was slowly getting stronger and stronger with each passing moment.

She tried to make sense of what was happening in her mind and her heart that was thumping furiously against her ribcage but no clarity was coming to her.

A few more moments had passed where her mind was clear but her body had started to move on its own again. She stood without thinking and started to walk through Percy's home. A few seconds later and she was standing in the doorway to his large room. Their eyes locked with one another but there were no words from either of them. Artemis just stood there for painfully long seconds.

Finally, she walked in and closed the door.

 **A/N: Let your imaginations go wild. So how's that?**


	8. Chapter 8 - Fierce Loyalty

**Chapter 8 – Fierce Loyalty**

 **A/N: Just quickly, those of you who follow my other story, 'Death' there's currently a poll on my profile, need some of you to vote on that, thanks.**

A beckoning call had reached the senses of the man who had once been somewhat Human. He'd been half God but now, so far down the line, stricken by a curse from an incredible source of malice, he was only Human in appearance. Ichor still flowed in his veins, but they were the veins of an Ancient Dragon, one who's power was almost unfathomable.

"Olympus is calling, they know you've had a fight." Artemis told him. It gave him a good enough explanation as to why she'd followed him to his room and what that wavy frequency flowing around his senses was.

"I'll put some clothes on." Percy huffed slightly before stretching his body and making his way to a large metal closet in the corner of the room. The longer Artemis spent inside the room, the more details started to come to her. The whole place felt hotter than Hephaestus' forge and nearly everything was made of metal except for the dry and arid looking mattress upon the bed.

Being a Dragon he must have needed to keep himself in a hot climate to feel comfortable but being a son of Poseidon, and one with as much incredible power as himself, he could probably still control the moisture in the air to make himself comfortable in almost any situation.

It can't have taken him more than ten seconds before he was finally clothed, though it was a loose term at best as all he'd done was put a jacket over the top of his bare body and put boots on. The whole thing seemed to be following the scheme of his leather trousers. He must have either really liked the feeling of the leather against his skin or he simply cared so little for what he wore. Unlike the trousers, his boots and coat were brown and gave a slightly different look to him. His bare but bandaged chest was still on show with a few fresh blood stains starting to pool across them. He shouldn't have been moving around while that wound was still there but she knew deep in her mind that nothing she could say or do would truly stop him from continuing in his mind-set actions. It was all part of the Dragon's pride.

"Let's go, milady. The sooner we finish our business with the council the sooner I can get some food. This Dragon is mighty hungry... Kinda fancy having Taco Bell now that I think about it." He muttered the last part under his breath once he'd found himself face to face with the silver Goddess, expecting her to be the one to take them to Olympus. He wouldn't have a problem with it himself but he was still too injured to really even get himself there.

"What's a Taco Bell?" She queried with a slightly open mouth. She could have sworn she'd heard some of her youngest hunters talking about that in recent years but it could only have been something from the mortal world or she'd at least know what it was.

"A fast food chain, don't worry about it. I'll probably just hunt something around here... Ugh, with your divine blessing of course." Worry had come across his face like lightning when he realized that he was standing in the presence of the Goddess that governed hunting. Like everything in the world of his past, SHE had to be prayed to for divine permission to hunt in her domain, that was just the way that it went.

"Let's go." Artemis smiled in mild amusement. She wasn't sure what to do in the event that he was praying to her for guidance because after seeing him hunt down not only a baby Dragon which her best hunters wouldn't be able to do alone but seeing him take on and decapitate an Ancient Dragon of legend, she wasn't sure who the better hunter out of the two of them was. What she did know was that at the very least, the gap between the two of them was so minute that at their current point, she wouldn't be able to yet tell who was better.

With a flash of silver, Percy's home was left empty, save for the braziers that let small flames give light to the gentle homestead. There were once again standing at the peak of Olympus, the huge council doors at their backs and the wondrous city of light, sounds, and multitudes of immortals all going about their daily lives in the pavilion far below them.

Most of Olympus knew about Percy's plight, most of them realized that there wasn't a way for them personally to help him and chose to just look on in pity. Others were more active with trying to show their support, so it wasn't to his excitement when he found his presence being announced by Artemis' godly flash of silver. It had basically painted a huge bullseye on his back. He heard a few girly screams from the pavilion before a dozen figures started to race up the steps.

"This is the first and only time I'm ever going to be thankful for the unnecessary amount of steps in this place. Please Artemis, get me in that council room!" He asked her desperately, his face had dropped to a sickly shade of white when he turned to her. Artemis thought he might be overreacting, just doing it because he could but in all of his life, he'd never wanted the attention that had been pushed onto him.

The Goddess of the Hunt simply nodded before ushering him inside and closing the grand doors behind her. Inside the throne room, a few Olympians had already gathered once they'd sensed Artemis returning with Percy by her side. Silently, she too took her place in her grand throne of silver and gold.

Knowing the procedure, he slowly milled into the center of the room while the others all gathered. Once they were all there, he kneeling in the center, "I'm honored to be in your presence, my lords and ladies." He honestly hated having to kiss ass to anyone but there was a time when he had to face the facts that in an all-out fight against a God in the throne room, he wouldn't last very long. If he had to fight against all twelve, he wouldn't be able to do a whole lot of damage even in his Dragon form. They'd never be able to kill him while he held the curse but they could overpower him and capture him. Torture would probably be the itinerary for a traitor of such a grand level.

"We would never ask you to stress your pride by bowing to us. You've ascended beyond nearly everything we've known, you are worthy of mutual respect Perseus." Zeus announced, sitting upright in his throne instead of slouching. Artemis noticing this, as did a few others, it was strange that her father would actually take an interest in these things. He was always the first one to reinforce the necessity to have all of the boring meetings but it was obvious that even he disliked them most of the time.

"I can think of a few better things he could do for me rather than kneeling." Aphrodite announced, placing a finger against her lips seductively. Percy slowly granted her the slightest angle of his narrowed gaze. He wasn't on the best of terms with her to begin with but the fact that she sought anyone to cross her vision just made him sick. The Goddess of Love with a whore at best, one he cared not for dignity.

Standing amidst the Olympians, he folded his arms across the bare part of his chest that hadn't been covered by his coat, as he'd chosen not to bother closing it. "Oh yeah? If it involves killing immortals, I can help, if it doesn't then you'd best try to invest in another hero." He told her coldly, not caring to lower his tone. The sheer defiance of what Aphrodite had obviously been implying was stunning. Artemis sat on her throne with a slack jaw, as most others were. Poseidon giggled quietly at the antics of his son. He could already see where this was going and couldn't wait to watch it through.

"Oh you'll definitely be killing it if my imagination is anything to go by. What do you think of the idea of beating one such immortal into a special kind of submission?" Aphrodite continued, despite the obvious warning that Percy wasn't interested. She even went so far as to get off of her throne and start swaying towards him.

Artemis wanted to shoot her in the face, on a regular day, but right now she wanted nothing more than to rip her to shreds from the way that she was moving on Percy like he was mere prey. It suddenly struck Artemis as she could see the ebb of blazing embers in his barely visible aura. Things were about to take a great turn for her and she was completely fine watching from the sidelines, though she wasn't above making a final verbal warning for the pink Goddess.

"Watch out Aphrodite, he's more than you can handle." Artemis smiled innocently as she continued to watch the unphased Goddess saunter towards the Ancient Dragon.

"So how about it, Dragon Slayer? You and me have our own little hunt for pleasure?" She had shown her intentions to get right into his face but never got the chance as the closer she'd gotten, she'd found herself being barely held at bay by the feeling of a thin line of sharp metal pressed against her soft skin.

"This is capable of killing my species, it might not permanently kill a God but you'll be in a lot of pain if you come any closer to me." He warned her, his tone nothing other than totally neutral. It was in his eyes; a completely fair warning but to the council, they didn't see a man defending himself as though he'd been made into prey.

They saw what Aphrodite was slowly starting to understand. For the first time in her life, she wasn't the predator between them. He never closed his eyes and his vision never faded from the target in his eyes. As she slowly backed off with fear in her eyes, he slowly put his sword away, uncaring for her plans and schemes towards him. It was evident that he simply held no interest in her. That was the most bitter blow there was.

Once sat back in her throne, the color returned to her face, she wasn't prepared to give up that easily. She was the Goddess of Love, she always got what she wanted. She wondered what could have been so important that he would have literally no inclination to indulge himself in her charms. She wondered... Was it perhaps from his current company? She looked towards her eternal rival, the one who hated men rather than loved them, or, she hated nearly all men, except for the one standing amidst them, answering the summons of a council he was no longer expected to serve yet still did anyway. Was she the reason he continued to risk his sanity and health for the Gods?

"Perhaps you won't have me, ever... But would you still be so cold to me if something deeply unfortunate were to ever take dear old Artemis away from us?" Aphrodite's words were laced with venom, the kind that wasn't appreciated by anyone on the council. There was a blur of green and brown and before anyone could understand what was going on, Percy was standing on the precipice of Aphrodite's throne, both hands pushed hard into the arm rests and a foot firmly between her legs on the only available piece of throne left to stand on. His eyes were fixed with hers and he was showing her what true fear felt like.

"Your throne even with all of the added power of you being in it, cannot do so much as land a scratch on my body, whereas I-" His hands crunched down into sheer metal, sending chunks of throne flying around them. Aphrodite screamed in pain. Her seat of power was breaking down piece by piece within Percy's hands.

"If I wanted to I could rip your world a-fucking-sunder, so think very carefully about who you're threatening, _Goddess,_ or you might find that a Dragon really is way more than you can ever handle." Percy growled viscously.

Everyone was completely stricken by the sheer show of primal instinct that had fallen over Percy the instant that Artemis had been threatened. The silver light that filled their vision brought them out of their haze of surprise when they found what they least expected, Artemis had her hand firmly on Percy's shoulder. She knew there would be questions and consequences surrounding this but there was nothing she could do about it now. He couldn't just kill Aphrodite, as much as it would please her.

With one final growl, he removed himself from her presence and returned to the centre of the throne room, bright emerald light followed his eyes wherever he moved, it was a sure sign that the animal inside was getting all fired up and the bellows of his lungs were preparing for a fiery war, unfortunately, Artemis had to get in his way and force him to calm down.

Percy stood in the throne room like a scolded child, arms folded and a face like thunder. The bandages around his body were drowning in red and blood was starting to make its way down the rest of his chest and stomach. Poseidon and Zeus were granted to a clear view of the wounds that he was harboring. A solemn look from each other was the deciding factor.

"Perseus, we can pick this meeting up another time on more personal terms, please allow Apollo to take a look at those nasty wounds of yours. Dismissed, Aphrodite, I wish for a word with you, if you please." Zeus told her through narrowed eyes. Sweat dropped down the side of her face before a number of them all disappeared. Artemis remained in her throne, eyes closed, heart thumping brutally against her ribcage.

Percy had fired off like a cannon at the thinly disguised threat that had been aimed at her.

No.

 _Her_ Dragon had shown his loyalty.

 **A/N: To answer a question I get quite a lot. I am my own beta reader.**


	9. Chapter 9 - Doctor's Orders

**Chapter 9 – Doctor's Orders**

 **A/N: Fun facts! I'm on the author favourites of over 1,000 members, have archived 700,000 words on this site and my average story length is 70,000 words. Here's to all of you!**

Apollo had taken it upon himself to do exactly as Zeus had suggested and seen to treating Percy's wounds. He may have attained an incredible sense of immortality but Apollo was still a God that directly governed medicine and by extension, the healing of nasty scars such as the ones that Percy had scored. All that aside, Apollo wasn't about to lose the chance to examine Percy, however brief it was he was still going to be able to at least ask him a few questions before he no doubt went off to fight his next big ass target.

"So how did this all start?" Apollo asked, looking at a medical clip-board while Percy was sat upright on a hospital bed in only his trousers and boots. Apollo had stopped the bleeding and caused the new layer of damaged skin to already knit itself together over the open wound but no amount of divine healing was going to render it as fresh skin, those three claw marks were going to be immortal scars on his immortal body.

Percy sighed, he rarely got the chance to have a humorous side these days so it was only natural that when Apollo had given him the chance, he was straight up going to take it, "For the sake of exposition I'll try and keep it short. It happened a certain amount of time ago when I recovered Pandora's Box." The conversation had gained speed like a ball rolling down hill and time became something that neither of them were taking any conscious notice of.

Eventually, Artemis had returned to Apollo's temple to see what was taking Percy so long as he'd agreed to help for a day with the Hunt, mostly to make sure that Zeus hadn't accidentally fried anyone while she'd been helping Percy to hunt down Dragons.

As she walked into the room, she heard what she was already certain was Percy pulling a prank on Apollo. "And there was one they feared!" His knack for dramatic flair was almost as impressive as most other things that he did, "He was, in their tongue, Dovahkiin!"

"What?" Artemis announced her arrival in total deadpan. She was wrong, she had no idea what Percy was doing as she watched him energetically leap onto a chair, thrusting his hands towards the ceiling as if he was speaking directly to a higher being. "DRAGONBORN!" His vocals shook the room from the sheer power and volume that only his voice was capable of. It was obvious to both of the divine archers that Percy wasn't being serious about any of what he'd told Apollo.

"No, I've played that game, you won't pull a fast one on me Percy. Come on, I've done you a favour with stopping your wounds from opening up again, you gotta tell me what's really going on inside your... Human façade, is what I can only assume is what I'm looking at." Apollo told him, looking on in fascination. His words had hooked Artemis in, he'd caught onto that extremely quickly but then he had been able to examine Percy quite a bit today so she'd not been expecting anything else.

"I am what I am Apollo. I would say that I'm no longer a Demi-god but I still have all of my power that I did as a Demi-god but on the other hand I am pretty much entirely a Dragon, even physically." Percy shrugged quietly. He hadn't expected to have ever told anyone that yet here he was with the other divine archer, letting him in on the closely guarded secret of his.

Apollo took this in and regarded it as something that he'd have to think about another time as there was something far more pressing on his mind and now that Artemis was there, he'd get a chance to get a straight answer from it.

"OK, there's just one other thing that I wanted to ask." He said neutrally. Snapping his fingers together, the door at the end of the room closed with a small click. Artemis merely raised an eyebrow but in her mind she already suspected that she knew what was happening.

"Percy, when Aphrodite threatened Artemis, and there's no mistaking that is indeed what that succubus was doing, you fired off faster than I've ever seen anyone go to the defence of another, let alone the Hero of Olympus and the Goddess Artemis, which, no offence sis, speaks for itself."Apollo had put it out there, the thing that was on his mind ever since that meeting.

Percy wasn't really sure what he could tell the God in front of him, both himself and Artemis barely knew how to deal with the attraction they had both tried to fight off so what the Hades could Percy say to Apollo? He knew that Apollo had always held a pretty well hidden side of him that was nothing less than a protective older brother, not that Percy believed either one of them to be any different in age, they were twins after all.

"So what's going on? Whatever is said in this room stays in this room, doctor/patient confidentiality." Apollo grinned with a flash of his pearly white teeth.

"You... What? So because I defended the only other person that is hunting Dragons with me, you naturally assume that there's something going on?" Percy asked in confusion. Artemis could tell that Percy must've not known exactly what had happened when he'd nearly destroyed Aphrodite's throne because he seemed to be genuinely unsure of where Apollo's initiative towards the two of them was coming from.

"It's not just that Percy, you literally broke down Aphrodite's throne with your hands and told her to back off. The only thing that stopped you from slaughtering her was a single simple touch on the shoulder from Artemis. Now are you both going to stand in front of me and try to convince me that there's nothing going on between you?" Apollo smirked. This was the first time in their lives where Apollo wasn't jumping the gun to skin any man that tried to win Artemis' favour.

Especially after Orion, what she'd expected Apollo's demeanour towards Percy to be was nothing short of hostile and even so, since the time before Percy was the Hero of Olympus, Apollo had favoured him over all others.

Apparently there WERE perks to being the God of prophecies. His damn foresight came in handle when he'd tried to hustle Ares through bets on whether or not Percy would survive all of his ordeals.

"You're right and wrong Apollo." Percy whispered with his head hung low and his eyes glued to the floor. "There is definitely something there but neither of us know what it is." His voice was almost inaudible. "So," He reared up, his brilliant smile and shining emerald eyes full of mirth and joy, "If you could just let it go until at least we figure out what it is, I'd appreciate that a great deal. Please and thank you. Also, please don't try to kill me, not that I'm sure I can die, but I still feel pain so that wouldn't be too fun." Percy frowned, lost in his own world. The mental and physical pain of still having superfluous nerve endings wasn't such a great thing when he was immortal.

"Fine." Apollo sighed heavily, "But it's about time that someone came along and brought Artemis back from her thousand year old depressive rut of hating men. She always steals all of the girls that are going to turn into the super cute ones." Apollo produced a frown of her own.

"I'm standing right here you know." Artemis announced loudly, not happy with the way that both Apollo and Percy had just continued their own personal conversation without her. She'd expected it from Apollo but from Percy? The one who couldn't stop his senses from going into overdrive whenever she was around him? She hadn't thought that he'd just blank her completely.

"Sorry Artemis, I'm sure the two of you have a lot of work to be doing. Oh, one last thing Percy." Apollo quickly ran to a desk on the far side of the whitewashed room and picked up yet another clip-board, this one looked far more like a results sheet.

"I've analysed the way that your body recovers when I did a few tests. I can't let you leave this place unless you promise me that you'll have at least one full day of rest from this point onwards before you go hunting another Dragon. If you don't let your body recover then slowly the damage will start mounting where you CAN be hurt and your mental health will start to diminish." Artemis' heart skipped a beat. So there was a catch, something that caused a huge explosion in the gap between Dragon and God. Percy COULD be hurt in a way that shadowed physical pain entirely.

"Artemis, I expect you to enforce the doctor's orders. You can do physical activity over the next day if you wish but nothing too strenuous on your wounds or you'll undo the last hour of my healing. A half an hour soak in a large body of water three times a day and you'll be more or less OK to take on your next target. That's all, see you guys next time you come to Olympus." Apollo waved before leaving through the door that had been behind him. Once he was gone, the door he'd locked when Artemis had walked in was re-opened and they were clear to leave.

"A whole day? That's going to be so boring, I don't want to sit at home for a whole day. I need to do something or I'll go insane from boredom." Percy sighed before reaching for his coat and clothing the majority of his chest, save for the centre where the coat wouldn't reach. The three fresh claw marks were on show as Percy had ditched the bandages as Apollo had basically forced new flesh to knit over the top.

"I need to check on the Hunt as my father is the one looking after them at the moment, if you behave then you can come with me and spend some time hunting with my girls. That reminds me, what exactly IS your next target?" Artemis asked, waiting for Percy to check that he had everything he needed.

"Um." Percy said with a totally dead-panned face, "I'll tell you later." He quickly grabbed his silver sword and slung it through the open hole in the back of his coat. He'd put the scabbard inside the back of the coat which meant there was little chance of him losing it.

Artemis thought it was a little strange that he'd so suddenly not tell her where they were going next but said nothing. He might not have decided where his next target was just yet. Artemis took a silent breath of hope that nothing went wrong when they arrived at her camp. Instead of just flashing into the centre of everyone, she took herself and Percy to the outskirts where she knew at least Zeus and a few of her older hunters would be able to sense the two of them.

Approaching the edge of the camp, she could already see the telltale signs that they were being watched by eyes unseen, yet judging from the way that Artemis could see Percy's eyes darting from spot to spot out of the corner of her own silver eyes, she believed that he had already found most of if not all of the hunters that had come to investigate.

Before she could do anything, Artemis saw the unmistakable sign of an arrow flying straight towards Percy's face. In the split-second that the twang of a bowstring had reached their ears, she witnessed something that she didn't think he could do while he was in his Demi-god body. He reared back for a brief instant before roaring towards the silver arrow that blitzed towards his open mouth like a platinum bullet.

A blazing inferno of hellfire, all perfectly contained within a precise cone, had shot out of his mouth. The roaring heat had singed everything around the displaced air that Percy had unleashed his breath upon. The only thing left of the arrow was a smouldering clump of near molten metal that had been misshapen from the sheer heat.

"Nobody fire any more arrows!" Artemis demanded immediately, holding her hands up in front of her with a scowl present. She looked at Percy who remained fairly casual all things considered. Smoke slowly billowed from his nose before he burped in surprise and covered his mouth.

"Excuse me, still not used to doing that." He shrugged with a slight smile on show. He was progressing much more than he thought he would. The two of them continued to walk further into the camp, most of the Hunters would be expecting an explanation for the reason why a previously missing Demi-god was right beside their mistress, poorly clothed for one in the presence of Lady Artemis.

"Now would be a good time to tell me where we're going next so that I can explain what's going on." Artemis muttered quietly, knowing full well that Percy of all people would have heard them. Zeus was sat on a log next to a fire looking incredibly relieved to see the two of them, if only to relieve him from his task of watching the Hunters only for a little while.

Artemis waved at him which meant he was allowed to go while she was there. A lightning strike and the King of the Gods was nowhere to be seen.

"Ah about that... We're going to Wales." He told her sheepishly. Artemis rounded on her heel with the speed of a fired bullet.

"Please tell me it's not what I think it is." She said with wide eyes. There was a fine line between myths and legends, and the thinks of reality when it came to the world of the Gods but what Percy was insinuating was just ridiculous.

"The Welsh Dragon is an Ancient Dragon from Pandora's Box, arguably one of the most powerful. Like... Four maybe five times stronger than Azazel the Dragon of death." Percy told her with a shrug and a guilty grin. There was a reason that he hadn't been planning on telling Artemis the next target because he doubted that she'd known about the reality of the Welsh Dragon.

"Put it this way," Percy's face had turned to that of stone, "He's so old and powerful that my species gained it's name from him. In our tongue, we are Ddraigs, but his NAME is Ddraig." Percy warned. Artemis' heart dropped, they were going to fight and try to kill the pioneer of all Dragons!?


	10. Chapter 10 - No Man

**Chapter – 10 – No Man**

Multitudes of sounds could all be distinctly heard each from their own locations, all of which were being picked up indiscriminately by the ears of the Dragon. Some where whispering as to why their mistress was walking alongside a boy, others where hushing about the identity of the boy, and yet the most intriguing sound to reach his ears was the almost deafening silence that came along with stares of disbelief from the eldest hunters who stood apart from the rest.

Thalia, a face he knew oh so well, stood next to some other hunters that Percy was sure that he recognized however their names escaped him. Thebes and Atlanta? No, that wasn't right, he knew that they both sounded like cities but were spelt differently, or that was at least what he thought it was.

"Phoebe, Atalanta, perimeter check. Thalia, firewood. We'll explain everything once we're all set." Artemis ordered at the speed of light. The other two hunters, Phoebe and Atalanta, not Thebes and Atlanta, immediately got onto their given tasks. Thalia trailed her eyes for a few seconds before she too forced herself away from the ghost in front of her.

It'd been three years since they'd seen each other and now she wasn't really sure about just how she was supposed to react upon seeing one of her closest friends returning.

Artemis had turned her head ever so slightly and had been about to ask Percy something but found herself caught up when she saw that his dazzling emerald eyes were already firmly awaiting her command. This was her territory, and territory was something that Dragons respected. In her domain, he would answer to her and her only. Before Artemis had actually been able to speak anyway, Thalia had returned with a stack of wood that one wouldn't assume someone of her build to be capable of carrying, but that was one of the many perks of being a hunter of Artemis.

Thalia dumped the pile of logs into a stone pit that was marred with ashes of previous fires. They all knew the drill at this point. Percy looked around stoically, the scent that he'd briefly picked up from Atalanta and Phoebe was getting stronger, which meant that they were already finishing their perimeter check and would soon be back. Now all they needed was for the fire to be built and Artemis could go on to explain what was going to happen.

Percy stepped forwards slightly. He wasn't sure why they were even going to build a fire, as judging by the shadows being cast down from the sun, it was noon at best. It was possibly a little cold for the hunters to be sat around listening to Artemis' debriefing for any prolonged period of time though, Percy wasn't sure, he was never good at judging temperatures any-more, not since the core of his body began to beat with the heart and soul of a Dragon. His own body temperature kept him warm in nearly any climate.

With a quick huff of breath, flames spewed out of his mouth and lashed around the logs in the fire pit, setting them aflame which caused a pleasurable wave of heat to engulf the three of them stood around it.

"So yeah, long story short, I'm a Dragon now, Thalia." Percy told her with a well hidden façade of smugness cast out from a side on glance in her directly. Thalia merely smiled as she looked on with her arms folded.

"I don't know what I was expecting but it's you, so nothing really surprised me any-more." She announced before grabbing him into a tight hug. "I'm just glad that you're safe. You could have asked any of us for help, you know we wouldn't have hesitated." She promised him.

Artemis looked on from behind neutral eyes as her lieutenant hugged someone that she'd come to find herself wanting for herself. Artemis was a master of disguise though and not even Thalia would have been able to detect the smallest hints of annoyance that the Goddess got from seeing Percy in the arms of another.

The day stretched on before them as Artemis went on to explain to all of her hunters exactly what had been happening.

"So, long story short, while he's still a male, I highly doubt you could class him in the same boat as the rest of them." Artemis had explained, looking around from face to face. She seemed to have persuaded most of them save for only a few faces of doubt here and there. She didn't expect them all to just immediately believe her.

"The soul of a Dragon sounds like just some fancy title that you thought up while you were missing. So you can breath fire now, what's to say that you didn't just stumble upon something that allowed you to do that? You're just the same as every other male that tries to get one up on the world." Phoebe announced with folded arms. She held the faintest trace of a smirk at her lips. Percy's ears picked up the individual tones within her voice. He was pretty sure that she was testing him, that she didn't really harbour any hatred towards him but that she just wanted to bait him out.

Percy grinned ever so slightly, "I know you're playing me, but I'll do what you want." He laughed ever so slightly before getting up from his log perch. He held out his arms for a few seconds before the skin turned rough and scaly. It tinted azure before darkening at the speed of light before it settled on a hue of green that was so shiny and vibrant that you would have believed him to have pure emeralds stuck against one another to form his skin.

Long grey claws erupted from his fingers to form the talons of a Dragon that rested carefully at the tips of his hands. The transformation ran the entire length of his now muscle bound arm. They all stared in complete shock. "At the very core concept on my existence, I am no longer even remotely Human. I'm barely even still considered a Demigod. I am completely a Dragon, even physically. This is just the body I use when hunting down anything lesser than an Ancient Dragon." A few more seconds passed before his arm shrunk back down to the way it was before, his skin returning to a casual tan.

"If we were ever going to make an exception for someone to be accepted in the presence of our Hunt, I think someone classed as no man is the best man." Thalia grinned, getting the approval from nearly everyone in the Hunt.

"With all due respect to all of you, even if you didn't accept me and still tried to kill me, you'd be at it for a while, because disregarding the fact that I literally hunt down Ancient Dragons, I am just as immortal as Lady Artemis." He told them all slowly.

"That doesn't mean that we can't have fun an-" Atalanta had never had the chance to finish. Within the blink of an eye, Percy's body had become a blur to all of them. His face stopped short only inches from hers, the wind blew her long brown hair back in a furious cascade of whipping ends. She looked stunned and in horror as her eyes were fiercly locked onto his, but he wasn't looking at her. He had one hand on her shoulder, the other arm reached far past her head. She could already tell that his sword was in his hand from the way that even the air being displaced next to her face had felt hot when it caressed her cheek.

"Take another step and I'll devour your soul." Percy's voice growled viscously. With the hand that was on Atalanta's shoulder, he pulled her from in front of him and safely put her behind his back. All of the Hunters and Artemis herself had their bows drawn, strangely they weren't drawn at Percy for his sudden outburst but at the line of trees that the Dragon himself was now facing. They didn't know what had set him off but they were trusting in him already.

There was a pause of silence before a chuckle filled the air, it was slow and dry, meant to tease those who stood before it. Out of the cover of the trees that Atalanta and Phoebe had been propped up against, a slender man with extremely pale yet not unhealthy looking skin, had stepped out. Now in full view, Percy's sword lowered by only a few degrees when recognition flittered across his face.

"Heavenly Dragon, Icewyre." Percy announced through gritted teeth. This wasn't a good sign. The Heavenly Dragon was the right hand of Ddraig, said to be tied as the second most powerful Ancient Dragon there was, rivalled only by the Hell Dragon, Azyat, who worked as the left hand of Ddraig, so to speak.

"The old man said that you were good but I wasn't expecting you to be able to sense me in what is essentially a completely Human body. Damn man, you're something else, not looking forward to the day you decide to take my head." His laidback tone betrayed the truth in his words as his challenging gaze of icy eyes would have suggested.

He casually ran a hand through his short dirty blond hair as he reassessed the situation. "So, I didn't want to catch you in the company of these Hunters, they shouldn't ever be subjected to the horrors of drake politics but unfortunately it didn't look like you were about to depart any time soon." Icewyre shrugged casually.

"The old man knows of your plan, just as he knows of our corruption. The lesser Dragons all call YOU the defiler, but us Ancients... We know better than that. You could be our saviour for all we know." He continued. Icewyre propped himself up against a tree, folding his arms and staring into the distance. Percy glanced at Artemis for a split second before putting his sword back into it's scabbard in his coat. If this Dragon decided to attack, then he wouldn't need his silver sword to kill him.

Artemis lowered her own bow but didn't stop the rest of the hunt from aiming theirs. "You can feel it, can't you?" Percy asked, cocking his head to the side slightly. Both Dragons looked at one another as the question hung in the air.

"Yes. It runs in my blood like a boiling fire. Not such a bad thing for a normal Dragon, but I'm the only living Heavenly Dragon. We're born of Ice, defiler, not fire." Icewyre told him with a heavy look of agony in his tired eyes.

"You're fighting against it, just as Azazel and Mirroth did." Percy hummed quietly. He knew full well that no matter how quietly he spoke, a fellow Dragon would always be able to hear him.

"Azazel was the Dragon of Death, he knew perfectly well just how deep this corruption has been sown. He refused to live with Ddraig in the oncoming days, he KNEW that you were coming and he accepted that. He told Ddraig that if you could kill him, that he would rest his soul in your hands, waiting for the day that he would come back with a free mind. The same went for Mirroth, though she was just incredibly stubborn sometimes, so I'm not really sure what really happened with her. Pretty savage to be carrying her spine around with you though." Icewyre seemed initially disturbed with his last sentence but it passed as he shrugged.

"You've all banded together with Ddraig? All eight remaining Ancients?" Percy asked, seeing the possible end to his mission if Ddraig was willing to help him.

"There aren't eight remaining Ancients you dope, there's ten. There are eight Ancients including Ddraig where we're holed up though and that's the best you're ever going to be able to hope for. You didn't really think about the curse this box has put upon you, have you? The two you've slain so far, the other eight that you're aware of, then there's you, an Ancient Dragon in your own right, but then... Well, I guess nobody ever told you about Kareah, huh?" Icewyre looked uncomfortable. He never expected that he'd be the one to have had to explain Kareah to the defiler.

"Straight over my head." Percy admitted. His hand begun to itch at the mere mention of the name. It just sent a chill running straight down his spine, who the hell was Kareah and why did his heart beat angrily at the mention of it?

"You're the second person to be cursed by Pandora's Box. You're the second Dragon Hunter to have been reborn as an Ancient Dragon, Kareah was the first, and when she finds you... I don't know what will happen. She won't be pleased that you've already been initially marked by another though." Icewyre shrugged yet again. He was a pretty carefree Dragon but that wasn't going to let Percy become too laxed around him. The emerald Dragon knew exactly how well these Ancients could hide their true intentions.

"Kareah would slaughter us all without reserve, YOU want to save our race. Ddraig is willing to meet with you on peaceful grounds. You already know where we are, so until then, farewell." The Heavenly Dragon waved behind him as he walked off into the darkness of the woods. It was a few minutes of silence as Percy continued to stare down the throat of the tree-line before a great white Dragon soared above the trees and high into the sky.

Artemis had said nothing so far and she wasn't sure what she COULD say. He was supposed to be unique in his existence, forever alone to walk the paths of time, forced to kill his own race, but to hear that there was another? A pang of immense jealously struck Artemis like a bolt of lightning.

"Hmm." Percy hummed to himself under his breath. That was a lot to take in but he could at least push everything about this Kareah to the back of his mind while he focused on preparing to go and meet with Ddraig. That could help him immeasurably if the Ancients were willing to go along with his plan.

Why did his whole body feel like it was on fire at the mere mention of that name? Kareah...

 **A/N: Love rivals, what what!? And yes, the most powerful Dragons can assume a Human form. For plot reasons.**

 **Review?**


	11. Chapter 11 - Sanctuary

**Chapter 11 – Sanctuary**

A thick fog fell deep over the vast canvas of lush green meadows that emulated the sparkling mirth in the eyes of the Son of Poseidon. Such a title that he'd long forgotten about himself. It had only been mere hours since he'd pushed himself out of a Welsh shoreline and onto foreign soil.

Percy didn't want Artemis to be caught up in the political sham that he was about to be in the midst of himself. He hated it, or at least he hated the concept of it. This would be the first time that he'd actually be included in any kind of debate between Dragons and it all sounded so boring to him yet he knew that at the slighest indication, the whole meeting could turn into a bloodbath.

Artemis was immortal but she could still be killed and forced to reform over time, that kind of thing was something that he didn't want to force her to go through. It was better that he'd left her behind for this one.

"Did you really think that I wouldn't notice you trying to sneak out of my camp? Because I barely did, I just expected you to try and do this." A voice like velvet reached his ears, made his breath hitch and his heart miss a few beats. It wasn't a fear of punishment that made his heart stop, it was him becoming more acclimated to his situation with the knowledge that she cared enough to follow him.

"I'm good but not good enough to pull a fast one over Lady Artemis, I would have been a fool to think I could have done that, so no, I didn't, but I did expect to lose you in the few hours I spent under the oceans." Percy admitted with a slight shrug before he continued his march over the vast green landscapes of the Welsh country. He didn't know specifically where Ddraig would be but the scent from that many Ancient Dragons all in one location was undeniably.

"Let's go then, those Dragons won't figure this out on their own." Artemis sighed lightly as she fell into step behind Percy who hadn't slowed even slightly when Artemis had appeared. She followed in silence, staring at the back of his head as she wondered what might be going through his mind. He was on a mission and nothing was going to get in his way, that much was clear when he had turned into the emotional equivalent of a potato when she'd tried talking to him the previous night in her hunt. The whole time he'd been so flat out stuck in his thoughts that he'd not given a second to think about how he'd subconsciously pushed Artemis away. It was all because of the name that Dragon had mentioned, she knew it was.

The two of them kept walking until they found a truly unusual sigh waiting for them. There was a burrow in the face of a large hill, nothing too inconspicuous, except for the large Dragon grazing casually next to the hole. It was black for the most part until the neck started to tint until it was purple all the way to the head. Deep white eyes sat in contrast to the purple scales of the head. When they approached, the Dragon slowly lifted it's head and gave them an analytical gaze.

"Greetings little Dragon." A deep rich voice breathed out in what sounded like a muffled yawn. Artemis guessed that most of the Dragons all grouped together in here needed little reason to do anything until a general direction for their coven of sorts was all decided.

"Hello Dragon that is half the size of my true form." Percy answered with a humoured smile on show. The Dragon huffed some billowing smoke out of it's nose as it pushed itself onto it's feet, standing proud with it's hind legs still resting against the ground.

"It's not the size of the Dragon that counts, it's how skilled the Dragon is." It announced proudly. Percy was unsure, but it didn't seem like this Dragon was actually one of the Ancients, just a random Dragon that had decided to flock towards the masses of higher ups.

"Yeah, I know, that's how I'm able to kill Ancient Dragons when I'm still stuck in this Human form, because I'm more skilled than half of you." Percy grinned. Artemis watched as he baited this guard with a flash of his sharp canines that hung lower than the rest. It was a good reminder to the Goddess that he was in fact a completely different person to the one that he had been before he'd gone missing.

"Hmpf. The other Dragon Hunter said the same thing. You two are cocky younglings." The Dragon announced, slowly returning to it's previous grazing position, obviously pretty intent on paying Percy much less attention from here on out. Artemis wondered whether other Dragons could feel Percy's power. It was something that Artemis herself desperately wanted to understand, that being exactly where he ranked among the other Ancient Dragons.

"The other Dragon Hunter? Is she here right now?" Percy's grin dropped and his arms folded impatiently. His granted the Dragon a gaze out of the corner of his eyes, not that the Dragon knew as it had already devoted itself to returning to slumber.

"She IS. You've arrived later than we expected and started the meeting. You may enter, along with your plus one." Percy hadn't even waited for the Dragon to tell him, he'd entered almost straight away with Artemis trailing behind him, her body shimmering in the darkness of the cave. It didn't really make a difference to the two of them who had superior eyesight.

They kept walking until they were in a grand cavern that took the breath away from Artemis as she stood wide eyed and looking at all of the different perches around, each with huge Dragons all atop them. There was a long platform of rock that extended from the entrance with a woman standing at the end, she seemed to have been in an intense argument with a hole of darkness at the opposite end of the cavern.

"Ah, he arrives." A voice echoed all around them, making the caverns very foundations shake. Following the voice, a head larger than each of the other Ancient Dragons pushed out of the darkness, showing himself somewhat.

"Greetings Ddraig." Percy announced with a small bow. As he bent forwards he placed an arm on Artemis' shoulder and prompted her to do the same. He knew that Gods didn't do well when they had to be formal with other immortals but the problem was that Percy would have preferred a diplomatic approach than anything else, so it would be better to impress them first time around.

"We've been awaiting you, little one. What kept you?" Ddraig's thunderous voice reached out to them.

"I just swam over three and a half thousand miles in a few hours, when you get someone who can do that faster than me then I'll come up with a better answer." Percy told them with a smug grin. He walked forwards, doing his best to ignore the woman who's gaze was fixed on him like he was the only thing in the world.

She wore an almost identical long brown coat to that of Percy's, except where Percy had once had bandages, his chest was bare and on show, the three fresh claw marks from Azazel had healed and were now nothing more than pale skin among the tanned outline of his body. His trident tattoo was on show where his coat was hanging loose around his shoulders. That crystal pendant filled with two souls was swinging happily with every step.

"You did what?" The woman asked in shock. She stood with her arms folded over a crisp white shirt that neatly tucked into leather trousers. She had the first few buttons near her neck undone, revealing that she too had a few scars to bear from her fights. She had long straight brown hair that had been pulled back into a tight pony tail that fell down her back.

Artemis couldn't help but feel jealous, this woman standing at the edge of the rocky plateau among the Dragons was astoundingly beautiful. She'd no doubt be confident in entering a competition of beauty with Aphrodite, and possibly winning. The way that her piercing amber eyes were firmly fixed on Percy made Artemis almost seethe, and she didn't even have any real right to feel that way about Percy, she was a virgin Goddess after all, charged with ensuring his mission succeeded, there was nothing that she was supposed to be more than a body guard.

Percy granted the woman a solid gaze over a few seconds before he turned his attention back to Ddraig, fully ignoring her in the process. Artemis found herself subconsciously smirk at that.

"I've had a lot to do and not a whole lot of time to do it, so you know, there's always that." Percy shrugged. He mindlessly ran a finger and thumb across the glowing pendant

"He marches in without a care in the world, wearing the souls of the fallen without any thought to the disrespect he throws at us, what kind of person does he think he is!?" The Dragon on Ddraig's right side announced heavily. The thick spines along his body seemed to be solidly flaming with each and every word.

"I'm a Demigod, I'm a Prince of the Sea, the three times saviour of Olympus, I've defeated Gods, monsters, topped a Titan Lord, put the Primordial host of Gaea back in her place, and stopped multiple wars between armies of Demigods, I could go on, but I won't... But I could." Percy's smug grin never once faltered from it's place.

"You list those hollow achievements like they make you untouchable in our sanctuary!" The Hell Dragon bellowed. He leaped from his perch, changing from Dragon to man before he even reached the rocky plateau. When he did he was only a few inches smaller than Percy, not that it mattered greatly as it seemed the son of Poseidon hadn't flinched or faltered even slightly.

An elongated talon ran it's course straight towards Percy's stomach but right at the last second his body turned into a blur. The next thing that anyone realized, he was stood with a knee firmly planted in the stomach belonging to the Human form of the Hell Dragon.

"Percy, Azyat, enough!" Ddraig demanded, shaking the cavern once again. Reluctantly the Hell Dragon returned to his perch, somewhat humbled by the shocking force that was delivered to his abdomen. Not even he would deny that he's be feeling that for quite some time.

The white Dragon that they'd met the previous day had found the whole ordeal entirely hilarious. "I have already come to a decision based on what I've seen. Icewyre." Ddraig's order seemed cryptic to Percy and Artemis. The woman next to Percy just huffed, it seemed that the debate they'd been having before Percy had arrived was now not going her way.

The Heavenly Dragon was the one who shifted into Human form as he strode towards Percy, "Sorry dude, this is totally going to hurt." He said with a slight grimace. Percy had been about to question that before a beam of solid light smashed through the pendant with the souls and right through his heart, letting the body of the new Ancient Dragon fall to the floor.

"Percy!" Artemis shouted before sprinting straight over to him.

"Relax, he'll be fine." The Heavenly Dragon mumbled before returning to his perch. Idle chatter filled the room from the other Dragons that were gathered.

Artemis watched in amazement as the wound began to heal before her very eyes before he finally pulled himself back to his feet. "Truly immortal but Gods damn that sucked ass. Why do we still feel pain? What the Hades did you just do to me?" Percy asked, looking at the skin above his heart. One side still had half of the trident tattoo but the other half was pale and scarred with fragments of blue glass dotted around. Icewyre had fused the pendant of souls to his heart, at least that was what it looked like.

"With your collection of souls now forming a well inside your own heart, you'll get magnificently stronger with each soul you collect. You cannot kill most of us as you are, not while the corruption runs through us like a flood of molten malice. I see only the two of you Dragon Hunters working together to be able to find the one responsible for tainting our minds. You who are now slaves to the curse of Pandora's box... Good luck younglings." Ddraig's voice faded away as did his head. He was moving further down into his deep burrow.

"Artemis, we shall leave them respectfully. Tomorrow the hunt begins." Percy announced, looking deep into Artemis' silver eyes. The Goddess understood what he was telling her. She also got the feeling that he'd just experienced something incredibly painful and probably wanted a few minutes to himself.

"Not so fast Dragon boy, I want a few words with you." That voice immediately put Percy on high alert. Everything about her was drowning in his senses and it was making him itch just beneath the skin. Who the fuck was she!?

 **A/N: And in other news, I am now a legitimate author, check that shit out. If you'd like to go and find that piece of crap that I wrote then you need to go on Amazon and search for 'Tenacious: Dead Man Walking' by me, Don Socrates. You can take a look at the first few chapters for free! It wouldn't let me actually make the entire book for free though, so there you go...**


	12. Chapter 12 - Kareah

**Chapter 12 - Kareah**

Artemis wasn't sure what she was watching, because up close it looked like a lovers quarrel, from a distance it looked like a lovers quarrel, no matter how she looked at it: they looked like fucking lovers!

She was leaning against the rocky wall that formed the entrance to the cavern where the Dragons had made their sanctuary. Half a mile away from her, by the edge of a deep lake, stood two Ancient Dragons who were once something else. Percy Jackson, the one the called 'defiler' and the other one, the one Artemis didn't care for in the slightest.

The other Dragon Hunter, she felt the same as Percy, that is to say that to a Goddess, Artemis couldn't actually feel their presence the same way that she could for other Gods and Demigods, but she could still feel a huge pressure welling up inside of them and if that was anything to go by then it seemed that the other Dragon Hunter was at least as strong as Percy.

"Do not test my patience, I will kill you just as easily as the rest of them!" Percy bellowed, a tiny lick of fire escaped his lips as he did so. The Dragon Hunters were both pacing around one another. This was a fight between Ancients just waiting to happen.

"Oh yeah? What is it that you have that I don't!? I could finish this within a fortnight, a week at most if you'd help me instead of trying to walk this path alone!" She retorted, fire pooling at the base of her own lungs, ready to spring out at any moment. Both of them were Dragons at their very core, this was what they did. To them this could have been no more than a simple argument of the slightest degree, but to Artemis this looked like the kind of heated argument that Aphrodite loved to see happen, because it usually took a rather direct path towards her domain.

"This for starters!" Percy yelled, flicking his wrist towards her. Within seconds a huge wave had erupted from the lake and engulfed Kareah, drenching her from head to toe. Percy watched from behind a facade of completely stone walled emotion as he resist the temptation to burst out in laughter from the rapidly bubbling anger of the Dragon in front of him.

Kareah forced herself to breath before giving him an intense glare. He'd never seen that look in anyone'e eyes before, not in his entire life had he seen such a vast mixture of emotions. The most prominent of them all was distress, she was desperately trying to avoid conflict with him for some reason yet she wasn't doing so well as to explain what that was.

"So you're an elemental wizard or something? Pales in comparison to what water Dragons can do." Kareah commented. She huffed slightly and the air around her immediately irradiated with waves of pure heat as she evaporated the water that Percy had forced over her.

"No." Percy laughed before holding his hand out towards her. He was forcing the moisture in the air all around them to all pool around her, somehow still managing to overpower her control over her body heat. He was using a level of control that he'd only recently attained and he was sure that it was because of how powerful he was becoming because of his recent hunts, not to mention the souls that now dwelled inside his heart.

"I'm not a mage or wizard or genie, I am the son of Poseidon, I'm a Prince of the Seas and in case you couldn't put two and two together," As Percy spoke, he raised his hand ever so slightly. Water flowed in a constant tunnel from the lake and engulfed Kareah, picking her up off of her feet as she swirled violently within, unable to do anything to free herself from his terrifying level of control.

"I am a Demigod, part GOD of the seas. Get it right and you'll live longer." He growled when he was only inches away from her face. He didn't need to torture her any further. He released all of the water and willed it to return to the lake. Kareah landed on her feet with incredible grace.

She locked her eyes with his as she returned to her full height only just below his. Their faces were inches apart. The tension in the space between them was overwhelming considering that they could both feel each other's breath breach the surface of their skin.

"So come on then, take a swing if you think you'll live long enough to kill me." Percy whispered, looking straight ahead, blazing emerald eyes meeting obsidian.

"We cannot do this alone, you want to purify their souls in death? FINE, we'll save them instead of return them to the damned box that you Romans love so much." Kareah caved, huffing as she did so. She turned away from him though that was more so that she could escape from under his pressuring stare.

"Greeks." Percy corrected her automatically, "If I destroyed them then I really would be the defiler, I will not be the one responsible for killing off my entire race. No..." Percy thought about it for a moment, casting his gaze towards the waters, "No, I'll save their souls, each one will bring me closer to my own goal, and when I finally get there, I'll be the one to purify their souls of this corruption, seal off Pandora's box and... Finally get some rest from all this shit." He sighed heavily. It was all starting to take a toll on his psyche.

"I've thought about it for days on end at a time, I can't think of any way that we CAN purify them. You better have something up your Roman sleeves when the time comes to save them." Kareah whispered. Looking at him from the corner of her eyes. There was something about him that she liked, something that she couldn't put her finger on.

Kareah was a refined hunter, one with the senses of an exceptionally powerful Ancient Dragon, she could hear Percy's heartbeat, she was one of the only one's who understood ever single instance of what had happened when Azyat had tried to strike him. Not a single irregular heartbeat when the Son of Poseidon had blurred from vision and countered the Hell Dragon.

Throughout their entire exchange, his heart remained the same, except for whenever he would tilt his head even by the slightest degree towards the little Goddess that he'd come there with.

"Greek, and yes, I do have a plan, which will work because I'm not a simpleton." Percy almost growled. He'd obviously grown very tired of this back and forth with immensely short time.

"Fine, do what you will. I'll come and find you after I deal with a corrupted one." Kareah sighed. She'd finally reached her giving point and simply turned to walk away.

"There's a corrupted one here?" Percy asked her, looking dumbfounded and totally simple minded. It would have been quite a funny sight if they hadn't just had the most intense face off with each other.

"No, not here, Africa. A once proud High Dragon, can't remember her name, but the corruption has totally taken her. There's no saving those who cannot resist the corruption even slightly. I'll deal with her, then I'll come and find you. Your next task should be obvious: the sickly green Dragon back in the Sanctuary. Poison is his forte, you'll probably need help with that regardless." She told him. They were a number of feet apart by now but to both of them there was still as much tension as if they were face to face.

"Then perhaps you should be leaving. I'm going home to rest, I'll not hunt for a while." Percy quickly waved to Artemis, he didn't want to be here any longer. He could feel his heart start to thump harder against his ribcage, it was a mixture of feelings that he couldn't determine the true reason for. Was it a Dragon thing? He couldn't deny that he felt... _Something_ from how she seemed to just instinctively seek out to hunt down a corrupted Dragon, that took something fierce and that was something he seemed to like.

"How will I find you when it's time to hunt?" Kareah asked, trying her best not to glare when the silver Goddess appeared besides them with obvious effortlessness.

"Hopefully you won't." Percy muttered.

"What?" Kareah raised a somehow glaring eyebrow at the Son of Poseidon who conveniently coughed right after that.

"I said you'll figure something out." Percy corrected himself. Artemis saw that as her cue. She wouldn't make Percy swim all those miles across the seas after leaving with such an exit. She took the both of them directly to the centre of her camp.

The girls took half a second to immediately be on the offensive, it would have been pretty impressive in any other situation but today Percy wasn't in the mood to experiene his second day with the Hunt. They'd been unable to try anything to him the previous night because he'd stayed completely hidden from all of them, but today they'd obviously been planning for his return.

"The scent of cinnamon burns in the firepit." Percy commented as he sidestepped a sluggishly pointed lance from Thalia. "Pine follows the silver Goddess' trail." He muttered a bit quieter while he dodged arrows coming from multiple directions. His reflexes were far too good, especially once his blood was pumping around his body and he was on high alert from being so close to Kareah.

"And most of all," He sucked in a large lungful of air before spitting a massive carpet of fire at the floor where it flowed all around, throwing all of the hunters off of their feet and onto the floor before the flames had burnt out into nothing. "Smells like a shocking defeat." He laughed at the before dashing away to the closest river while the Hunters all yelled and started to chase him with embarrassment and malice both.

Artemis just watched the whole ordeal from behind her stoic expression. "So there is a glint of the old Percy Jackson still alive in there after all." She whispered to herself before pulling away and retiring to her tent. She needed to plan a hunt for the girls that Percy could assist on. She also needed to find a way to convince the girls that he was no longer even Human, maybe then they would actually listen and lighten up with the amount of offensive tactics that they had somehow managed to devise over a twenty four hour period.

"Is she replacing me?" Artemis whispered, staring down at a completely empty table while her mind fought an unseen battle. Did she even have any right to consider herself something that Kareah COULD replace?

She'd fallen into something with Percy that had felt so natural that she'd not even been able to stop and question it, until now. What the Hades was she doing!? She was a virgin Goddess, she hated men, but Percy... Was different, he really was, but that wasn't enough. She couldn't change her ways on account of a lost boy returning as not just a man but a prideful Dragon. It was bound to break her just like Orion did, she knew it.

She couldn't involve herself with him by any means beyond what her orders from Zeus were. She'd help him to track and hunt down the Dragons but that was it. She wouldn't keep up this false hope that he was the one for her.

A silent tear fell down her cheek as she came to terms with the fact that SHE was going to break herself away from him so that she wouldn't get hurt by him.

Little did she know that Dragons would fight until death, and Percy wasn't going to give up on the words of an upset Goddess.

Two Ancient Dragons were impending on clashing with one another, and Artemis knew that whether they truly fought or not, that they would look like fighting lovers. Where did she fit in with all of that?

She wasn't even sure she wanted to find out, not if it meant losing her Dragon.

Losing a Dragon.

 **A/N: Yo, been a while. Quick chapter to get back into the swing of things. Review?**


	13. Chapter 13 - He Did What?

**Chapter 13 – He Did What!?**

"You'll never be able to kill us all." The downed Dragon barely managed to breath out it's last words as it bled out on the side of the mostly destroyed rocky plateau of the mountain it had once called a nest.

The peace it had been enjoyed was torn to shreds the moment that a deep mahogany Dragon had swept down and shredded fresh claw marks all along it's spine before pirouetting and turning into a human before it's very eyes.

"Yeah well, I'm not longer allowed to kill you all, as much as that would save me a world of work, apparently HE is going to save you all." Kareah answered the dying Dragon, sucking her teeth as she did so. She wasn't happy with her predicament, not at the best of times but to have basically become second most hated by the majority of Dragons actually irked her some.

"Your words are trife and senseless." The Dragon spat, refusing to give any kind of respect in the face of the one who had sentenced her to death.

"Oh? I guess you hadn't heard the news..." Kareah slowly squat on her toes to go as close to eye level with the Dragon's head. "The 'defiler' is the one who is trying to save you all from the corruption that has robbed you of your senses. Pride is such a benign thing when it's misplaced." Kareah sighed, plunging a talon covered arm through the Dragon's skull.

She slowly swiped her hand across the air in front of her in an effort to shed the brains from her fingers that had quickly changed from claw to finger nail, the scales receding along with them. "Can't believe I just rolled over and let him order me around… But those eyes." She reasoned with herself, talking to no one in particular as she began her march down the mountain. She had quite a lot of time to think about things.

Could he really do it? He'd already killed Mirroth, an Ancient Dragon renowned for being stubborn and especially tough, and that was the first Ancient he killed. Took her spine and fashioned it into a sword as some kind of trophy. Killing the Dragon of death was the second step towards him become almost unstably powerful.

And what was the deal with that pushy silver witch? She felt powerful, but not quite the same league that herself and Percy were in. She couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh. There was no way that any of his plan was going to be easy. For it to work as effectively as he wanted it to he needed EVERY Ancient soul.

The sky above had slowly been turning from a crisp blue into an angry torment of swirling grey clouds that threatened to breach at any moment. "And that looks like it's my queue." Kareah whistled to herself, marching onto her next destination which happened to be America. From Wales to Africa, now to America. She took a moment to transform into her true form before thrusting towards the skies. It wouldn't take her long at all when her wingspan was that of a cruise aeroplane.

The only other one of her kind, a once Human with the soul of an Ancient Dragon and he was already going through the initial stages of a bond, with that shiny immortal no less. Kareah could feel an ebb and pull in the moments where she was face to face with him, arguing with his piercing emerald gaze, trying not to let it get through her steely defences, even though it had done so the moment she'd seen him. Whether he knew that or not…

It didn't matter, she'd just let it all build up until one of them had to address it, either that or it wouldn't build up quite to that extent, which would save her a lot of hassle, possibly an accidental war with those Gods.

But maybe she'd go and find that little Goddess first.

 **Line Break**

Percy pushed himself through the creaky door, following the narrow hallway until he was in a dim room with several stools all stacked around a single solitary bar. There were two guys smoking and drinking in the corner, minding their own business, and a woman tending the bar itself, that was it.

"Quiet today." Percy muttered, making his presence known. He had to, he'd gotten so good at being stealthy that it just naturally became a part of him.

The woman looked up suddenly as if she hadn't been expecting him at all despite the fact that she knew most of his routine.

"Wow, you look worse for wear today. I hope the other guy looks worse." She muttered back, turning around to start pouring a drink for him. He eased himself into one of the bar stools and awaited his drink.

"Well the other guy was a Dragon and he's now dead." Percy responded with a perfect deadpan before sipping the drink. "More ice please." He asked politely, allowing her to fulfil his request before he placed the glass against his head, giving off a pleasurable sigh as he did so.

"Haven't seen you this tired in a while, you sure it was just a fight that's gotten you like this? You forget that I've seen the shit that happens in your life, _hero_." She hid a smug grin from him, emphasizing the 'hero' part of that.

She was a satyr, one that knew very well who Percy used to be. She was one of the few people who knew of Percy's whereabouts during the three years that he'd been considered a missing person from Olympus.

"Go away Lilith." He groaned in pain from behind the glass. "My temporary crime fighting buddy has had to go on a fresh hunt with her peerage and I got beaten up by previously mentioned Dragon then went to a meeting with Dragons and used nearly all of power as an example of 'not to be fucked with', so it's left me with a massive headache and just generally exhausted from it." Percy admitted, taking another sip from the glass.

"Heard there was a brutal storm somewhere in Africa, the kind of storm that someone orders. Apparently this storm managed to stir up a roost of Dragons, hear anything about that?" Lilith asked with a raised brow.

That had caught Percy's attention as he sat up straight. "No, actually. Someone from Olympus purposefully poked the hornets nest?" He asked with a side-on glance.

"If by poked you mean ordered a Zeus scale thunderstorm precisely over the Dragon's next then yes, that's exactly what I mean." Lilith nodded. She'd resigned herself to cleaning some glasses that had just been washed.

"Brilliant," He chortled sarcastically, "Dragons are extremely intelligent and the majority are aware of the God's existence which could potentially mean a very angry coven flying towards Olympus as we speak." He groaned, fearing that he was about to have to do things and protect those asshats yet again.

"Or they could have perished from the storm?" Lilith asked the question, unsure of just how hardy most Dragons were. She knew that she wouldn't fight one, but something along the lines of Zeus' lightning wasn't something to take lightly either.

"Not likely. If a storm was ordered right above them then it seems more to provoke than to exterminate… Wait, did you say Africa? Funny, I know someone who's gone there to deal with a Dragon, maybe she's noticed this coven." Percy rattled off absent mindedly. It became clear that he'd stopped actually talking to Lilith directly almost immediately.

"Someone special?" Lilith grinned, "I heard that something went down on Olympus and now Aphrodite is terrified of you." Lilith's grin grew even wider as she realized that she had the opportunity to gossip. Nothing interesting really ever happened in her bar with most of the regulars, it was only the one or two that came by that could brighten up her day with juicy stories.

"Another Dragon Hunter just like me apparently. It seems that before I went and fell into the trap concerning Pandora's flipping pithos, that she'd already done that, making her the first Dragon Hunter, and myself the second." He explained.

"Oh, so that makes the two of you the only ones of your kind? That's pretty romantic, shame you're already shacking up with a Goddess." Lilith sighed, going back to cleaning glasses.

"Yea-… What did you just say?" Percy glared, his heavy ember eyes narrowed into draconic slits that promised wrath. Lilith slowly turned around realizing her crucial mistake.

"I said it's a shame that you're already shackled to service with a Goddess..." Lilith's attempt was fast and sloppy and unfortunately it was never getting past Percy's extreme senses and intelligence.

"It was Apollo, wasn't it?" Percy's glare never left him as he lifted the glass to his forehead, his impending migraine already making itself ever more prominent. He did NOT need to be dealing with this right now. Rumours were one thing but rumours about THAT was something that he really didn't have the capacity to deal with.

"I'm going to make that bastard fade." Percy grunted before slamming a drachma on the bar and downing his drink. It was time to hunt a God.

 **Line Break.**

Thalia and Artemis were in a brushes of a thick forest tree line, staring dead ahead at a heap of muscle and flesh. They hadn't quite figured out what it was that they were hunting, but they knew that it was ridiculously powerful despite it's average size for a monster.

This was beginning to become quite a regular thing for Artemis but that was mostly down to her recent choices of company.

A very dim flash had erupted between them, the kind of flash that belonged to an obnoxiously vibrant God that was trying his damn best to be stealthy. Apollo kneeled down silently, his stealth serving to surprise Thalia who'd never seen him go so long without saying anything.

Artemis sent him a scathing glare that demanded to know why he was pestering her when she was in the midst of a hunt. This went of for another very long ten second period where Apollo remained consistently silent but even that had become too much for him.

"Percy is trying to kill me!" He blurted in hushed whispers, genuinely looking like he was fearing for his life.

"That's ridiculous Apollo, why in Hades would Percy of all people want to do that?" She asked, matching his equally tame volume. "He's got far too much of a veteran temperament to give in to his baser desires to kill you despite how annoying you can be." She followed up quickly.

"Well that's just the thing, he may be trying to kill me over something that could potentially be pride related." Apollo continued, sweat rolling down his forehead. "I may have possibly blundered upon that whole patient doctor confidentiality about what you two told me." He told her looking sheepish with every word that had gotten past his mouth.

There was a moment of silence where Thalia just lay there, piecing it all together. She'd understood what Apollo had meant at the exact same time that Artemis realized EXACTLY what Apollo was saying.

"YOU DID WHAT!?" She raged violently. Her natural power purged in a radius away from her with the sudden outburst of anger. The trees shook down to their roots and Apollo was thrown onto his back. They were entirely caught up in their ordeal that they were all surprised when the thing that Artemis and Thalia had been tracking had unfurled itself and roared violently, sizing them up with hungry eyes.

"Oh, imagine that. Another Dragon, haha." Apollo laughed to himself for a second before reigning himself in when he saw Artemis' scathing glare.

Right before the Dragon charge directly at them, a flash of gold penetrated their view. At first Artemis had thought that Apollo had gone to meet the challenge but then she thought that even he wouldn't be that stupid. A God was a God but it was a foolish gambit to rely on brute strength to kill a beast such as this.

When their eyes had adjusted they saw something that almost made Artemis' blood boil. There she was, Kareah, walking towards them as casually as ever with the now decapitated head of the Dragon firmly in her right hand, a confident and smug grin plastered over her gorgeous features as she did so.

"Well shit, who is THAT?" Apollo asked, already falling in love with the vision in front of him.

"Percy's counterweight." Artemis quipped sorely. It seemed that both Artemis and Kareah knew what the score was, and even though Artemis had a clear advantage, she couldn't quite see it for herself.

"I heard that." Kareah's soothing voice reached them. Artemis didn't care. It was impressive but she didn't care.

Apollo felt like there was about to be the biggest cat fight he'd ever witness but before he could even intervene, the ground opened up and swallowed the body of the dead Dragon, rumbling violently the whole time.

Out of the now fiery fissure was a Dragon covered entirely in burning flames. The general outline of the Dragon was obvious but no specific details could be seen save for the fact that it was entirely shrouded in fire.

"The defiler's scent leads me to you. You'll do for now." The Dragon roared maliciously, glaring straight at Kareah. She hadn't prepared quite for this, so now the situation was going slightly south as the Dragon that had decided to rear it's ugly head in front of them was none other than the Dragon that Percy had shown up in Ddraig's Sanctuary. Azyat, the hellfire Dragon.

"That's not good, is it?" Artemis asked the question that needed no answer.

"No, that is in fact VERY bad. I didn't prepare to fight an Ancient Dragon today." Kareah whispered back, knowing full well that Azyat would also have heard her words. She doubted that he would wait around for her to transform, he was the least honourable Dragon that she'd ever met.

"My initial assessment would be to run." Kareah told them in an exceedingly calm voice.

Before any of them could step away, a sword whistled through the air and cut the entire underside of Azyat's throat before lodging itself in the Dragon's skull. Standing there was a vision of pure destruction. Percy wrenched his sword free, staring straight at Apollo the entire time, his eyes brimming with flames that gave off trails of smoke that rose above his head.

"Apollo, you owe me a damn good explanation!" Percy demanded, embers bellowing out of his throat with every syllable.

Apollo knew perfectly well that he was in deep shit, and there was nothing that could save him from the overwhelming level of punishment he was about to experience.

 **A/N: Yo! So I actually AM back as I've been able to update twice in a week. Review?**


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